You Are My Sweetest Downfall
by thestandardlines
Summary: Spencer Hastings had fallen in love with her best friend, Emily Fields, only to be separated by distance and A. Spemily, Spemily, Spemily.
1. Chapter 1

**You Are My Sweetest Downfall**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Though I have a huge crush on Shay Mitchell and Troian Bellisario, and I'd like to keep them both to myself. Haha. As this is an AU, there have been some changes to the storyline and I don't exactly know where the changes begin in terms of it's continuity with the TV series, and no I've never read the original books, so please don't get upset!

**Chapter One**

Emily stared at the ceiling as she laid in her bed. It had been three weeks since she had moved to this house, but she had yet to get used to it. A few unopened boxes were left in a corner by her desk, unsure whether the boxes belonged to her and wasn't ready to go through reminders of her past life in Rosewood.

When Lieutenant Colonel Fields' unit was rotated, he was given an extended assignment that required his service at Fort Knox in Louisville, Kentucky. Emily contested every night with her mother about it, which she came out unvictorious.

She could remember every single conversation they had about it, until her mother have had enough of the fighting. Her mother's final words were burned in her mind, and they kept playing over and over, "You belong with your family."

Her mother could no longer handle being separated from her father, and she had one day decided to move to Kentucky, no longer discussing this with her. Emily just came home one day to her house packed in boxes inside a giant U-Haul truck.

And then she was in Kentucky, in one of the most important bases in the United States Army history, but she couldn't feel at home. Her mother decided to paint her new room a shade of yellowish cream; the colors only reminded her of her old room, and it only made her miss it even more.

She grabbed her phone and looked at the time. It was 7:10- scratch that, 1910 hours; she put the phone down on her nightstand and she closed her eyes.

Three weeks had passed and not a single message from A. Did it only take getting out of Rosewood and moving over 600 miles away to get A to stop? Somehow she couldn't believe that the distance was gonna stop A from making her life miserable. So she just let her mind wander off into some other form of despair. She didn't know what else to do but worry.

Living in an off-base military housing didn't mean living without the military schedule. If anything, she had to go through a stricter schedule than being on based. Her father, who had to get up at 0330 hours for training, had set a 1930 hours curfew for her house, and an 2030 hours bedtime. And every night he would play Taps in the house before bed, and the Reveille in the morning.

Once in a while she had received messages from her friends back in Rosewood- Spencer, Aria, Hanna, and occasionally Toby- who would tell her that with her absence, A just had to attack them double. This made her feel guilty, even more so because she couldn't respond to them as much as she wanted.

She hated it here and almost made her wish that she was back in Rosewood where the only sound she dreaded was her phone with a message from A. Almost.

* * *

><p>Spencer stared at the plate of fresh salad in front of her, absent-mindedly rolling an olive around on her plate. A lot of things were on her mind; more importantly, a day had passed without her getting any message from A, but then again it was only six-thirty at night. The day wasn't over yet.<p>

"Spencer, are you even listening?" Spencer looked up to see her dad, Peter, who was sitting across from her, turn a shade of red in frustration. He took the lowball glass on the table and put it to his mouth, drinking over half of the whiskey on the rocks with one gulp. He then filled it up to the rim.

"What?" Spencer replied, gently shaking her head to bring her back to her dining room where her family was sitting together for a dinner. It had been seven and a half weeks since her family had eaten together, since the funeral for Ian Thomas, her sister's fiancé.

"This is why I'm the favorite," Her sister, Melissa, groaned. Veronica, her mom, did not say anything at all to negate this statement. Spencer shot a quick glare at her sister and turned her attention back to her dad as quickly as possible.

"I am taking Maxwell Tyler to the club, a potentially new client, tomorrow. He's bringing his daughter around and I need you to entertain her." Peter said this with a definitive tone that implied it was not a choice. Knowing that her father does not accept a no for an answer, Spencer just nodded.

"May I be excused?" Spencer said, putting the fork down on the side of her plate. "I have to finish up my summer homework, and maybe try to get ahead." She lied, as she had finished the summer homework a couple of weeks after summer had began. She just didn't want to be with her family at the moment.

"Okay," Peter replied, "Just don't forget about tomorrow."

"I won't. I'll go to the club as soon as I get out of field hockey practice." Spencer said, pushing her seat forward and leaving the room.

Before she walked toward the living room, she turned around to watch her family have a real conversation, something else other than winning or the trouble she had been into—but about Melissa's adjustment in Philadelphia, about the short older woman who was teaching one of Melissa's classes whom Melissa endearingly referred to as Professor Hobbit. And her parents laughed; a sound that was rarely ever heard in the house, or so at least Spencer thought. Her stomach sank, knowing that she would have never felt like she belonged in this family. She quickly ran into her room.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Thank you all for reading my story. Hope you all like it. And thank you for catching my mistakes and letting me know. The two Ian names have always confused me since the beginning. Please let me know if I do it again! I appreciate all your help! _:D

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Two<strong>

Emily didn't remember falling asleep, but the next sound she heard was the 0330 hour-Reveille that woke her up in a jolt. When she opened her eyes, it was dark and if she were back in Rosewood, this darkness would have stricken her with a sudden, overwhelming fear, usually caused by her fear of A watching her every move or doing something subtly that messed with her mind (and life)- but she tried to remind herself that it may just be her mother or father that had turned off the lights upon seeing her asleep in her bed.

Unable to get back to sleep, Emily stretched her body and slowly sat herself up on the edge of her bed. She turned on the lamp on the nightstand next to her bed to look for her phone, which she quickly found on the floor. She picked it up and saw a couple of messages from Hanna and Aria, and a missed call from Spencer.

As it would only be 0335 hours in Rosewood, Emily made a mental note to return Spencer's call during a more appropriate time. She decided to go see her dad off to a day's work. It was a weird feeling, being around her mother and father and yet never seeing them as much as she thought she would have now that they all live under one roof. He was always busy with work and he had left early or come late (although the enforcement of her curfew and bedtime were still strict.) She had decided not to have as much interaction with her mother alone whenever possible, and busied herself with running and swimming during the day, if she wasn't in her room reading books or learning the military standards and protocols. Emily thought that this would subtly show her mom her disagreement with moving to Kentucky.

Emily put her phone down on her nightstand, turned off the lamp and hurried downstairs. She had almost missed her dad as he had just reached the front door when she got to him.

"Morning, dad." Emily said, giving him a smile.

"Emmy, what are you doing up this early?" Colonel Fields turned to face her.

Emily couldn't think of a way to explain to her dad what was going on in her mind. She walked closer to her father and wrapped her arms around him, a gesture in which he returned, warmly wrapping his arms around her tightly. "Emmy," he said, he pulled away from the embrace to look at her, placing a strong yet gentle hold on her forearms. "What's wrong?"

It never ceased to amaze her how her dad can just give her one look and he would know that something was upsetting her, or when she was lying. She thought that maybe if her mother could see past her homosexuality, she might just be able to do the same. But in that thought, Emily decided that with her mom not knowing something was wrong, she wouldn't have to explain a lot to her.

"I'm just glad to have you around, daddy." Emily said, "And not have to worry about you being so far away in another country." She added.

"Oh, Emmy," Her dad pulled her into another hug, "I promise when I get some free time, we are going to spend every minute of it together. I'm sorry that I've been so busy." Emily could tell that her father believed there was more to it than what she had said, but he didn't say anything more about it.

She held out her right pinky in front of her, "Pinky promise?"

His lips curled into a smile, and he took his right pinky and wrapped it around hers. "Pinky promise." He replied. They heard two beeps from his watch, which meant a quarter point in the hour or it turned into an hour. He looked to confirm. "Have to go, Emmy. We'll talk later."

Emily nodded. She watched as her father straighten his uniform before kissing her forehead and heading out the door. She held the door open and peaked out to wave goodbye to her father, and as soon as he was out of sight, she closed the door and went back to her room.

* * *

><p>Spencer walked toward the hockey field with her bag on her shoulder, twirling her hockey stick around until she reached the benches where she placed her bag down. She could see a few girls walking her direction, with the same Rosewood-assigned gym bag but they were unfamiliar to her.<p>

Lindsey Brickle, a teammate, tossed her a jersey with the number two on it. Spencer held it up and found it different from the uniform they wear for field hockey. Spencer had never heard of the school changing the sport before the beginning of the year, especially without her knowing about it.

"What's with the new uniform? Are we playing soccer now?" She asked the girl that gave her the uniform.

The girl looked at her and smiled, "Just put it on, Hastings." She replied. All the girls were wearing the uniform except for her.

_Must be for drills_, Spencer thought. _We must be meeting the new coach today_, she reminded herself. Since Ian Thomas, her field hockey coach, was found in a cabin where he was supposedly hiding out, dead; Spencer and her team mates had practiced without a coach. And today they are finally getting a new coach or else they would have had to forfeit this season. Spencer took her top off, exposing her toned upper body, and shivered as a cool breeze blew past her. She quickly pulled the jersey over her head.

Spencer looked up and she was in the middle of field, in her new jersey that was slightly bigger than she wanted. The girls in her team, and other girls in similar jerseys but different in color, were scattered around the field in unfamiliar positions. She looked around for the new coach, not remembering if she had received any instructions to why they were playing a different game than the field hockey game they were supposed to be practicing for. She noticed that she wasn't even holding her hockey stick.

_What's going on? _Spencer asked herself, as one girl passed an oval-shaped ball to her. And before she could elicit a response from herself and do something- she watched, unable to move, as a girl was running full-force toward her. She was able to observe the girl; average height, lean and tanned body, dark hair. Her eyes were green with a tint of honey, and she smiled and winked at Spencer before making contact with Spencer's immobile body.

It was instantaneous, the moment the girl's body hitting her and her own body slamming against the field. Spencer was unable to get up, her right hand flew to her chest as she let out a gasp that lasted longer than 15 seconds, a long labored intake of breath with her mouth slightly opened. She felt a bit of the pressure lifting away as she watched the girl stand up, and her teammates gathered around her, but none of them approached her to see if she were okay. Their bodies faded into the darkness, and her eyes closed.

She opened her eyes and found a pair of dark eyes staring at her, soft pink lips slowly revealing a set of pearly white teeth of a smile. Spencer knew she could recognize those eyes and lips even before her brain had managed to arrange them into logical, perceivable image. They were Emily Fields'. Her smile widened as she slowly hovered closer toward Spencer, inching slowly and her lips closing in on Spencer's own slightly opened lips.

Spencer closed her eyes, anticipating the kiss, but instead was awaken by her alarm clock. She glanced toward her night stand, and watched red LED lights formed the numbers 06:25. She felt her right hand cold against her stomach, and she was still having trouble breathing, but now was panting faster. She tried to take a few deep breaths to get her breathing back to normal, and let her mind figure out what was that weird dream all about.


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: Thanks for reading this story. I apologize for the wait! Hope you like this._

**Chapter Three**

Emily sat on her bed and stared at the boxes in the corner of her room, contemplating if she should open them. She knew she had one box with all of the things that reminded her of Alison, whom she didn't want to remember at all.

Unable to just sit there doing nothing, she decided to continue reading _The Hunger Games _book that she had started a few days ago. She walked toward her desk and grabbed the worn-out copy on her desk, the cover almost falling off from the pages. Toby had given it to her a week before she left Rosewood. He thought that she might have enjoyed it because she always loved adventures. And she did, maybe even still does- but A had been outlining her adventures lately that the only adventure she wanted was an escape away from A.

She took the book and made her way to her bed. She set it on the nightstand, fluffing her pillows out before sitting on her bed. She stretched her back and leaned back against a pillow. She opened the book to the page that she had last read, cautiously touching the pages in fear that it would fall apart. Toby had written a short note inside that read "May the odds be ever in you favor," and on the side of it was his rendition of the bird-the _Mockingjay_, Emily had learned- from the cover of the book. She took it out and and smiled; it was beautiful. She had always admired his artwork, since she had seen his drawings from his notebook.

She was so engrossed by the book that she hadn't noticed the time passing by, over 4 hours had passed without her doing anything else but reading. She hadn't noticed the missed messages and emails on her phone. She hadn't even gotten up to use the lavatory or to eat or drink.

She got to the last chapter, reading intensely and holding the book so close to her face that when her mother, Pam, pressed it away from her to get her attention, she was furious.

"There was a package for you," Pam said, setting down a small box on Emily's lap.

"Thanks," Emily said, looking up at her mom and gave a weak smile. She watched as her mom walked out of the door, but quickly turned around and poked her head by the door.

"Don't forget, we're going to the PX to get your school uniform." PX or Post Exchange was what they call a retail store operating at the base, like a strip mall or department store. For the first time, Emily was not excited about shopping at all.

"Yes, mom, we're going in the afternoon, after lunch." Emily said flatly, and her mom left again.

She was about to pull the book to her face again until she noticed the sender of the box: S. Hastings.

Excited, she almost threw the worn out book onto her bed, not caring really about what pages were going to fall away from the spine of the book or what the last page she was reading. She pulled the box closer to her and read the information on the sender's side of the box.

_This couldn't have been from A, right? _She thought, _It's possible that Spencer could have sent this out._. She felt a sudden, sharp chill down her spine.

Emily looked at the package again, and decided to call Spencer to confirm. She took her phone and dialed 3 on her speed dial to call Spencer's cellphone, who was only #3 because voice mail already took the number one spot and her dad the number two.

"_Hey, Em_," Spencer greeted her warmly, there were a lot of indistinct noices in the background.

"Are you busy?" Emily asked, almost forgetting what time it was.

"_No, I'm just heading to the library._" Spencer replied, "_My sister's give me a hard time, as usual. It's part of her complete and balanced breakfast, a full serving of bananas, oatmeal, and Carnation Instant bitch."_

Emily laughed, "She's only there for a few days and she can manage to spark you up like that."

"_Yeah, I know I shouldn't let her get to me like this_," Spencer said, "_I don't even know what I'd do if one day she decides to come out and tell me that she's A._"

A! She was the reason that Emily actually called Spencer. "Oh, thanks for the package by the way. I just got it today."

"_What package?_" Spencer asked her.

"Didn't you send me a package?" Emily asked, her voice was laced with panic and fear. She pushed the package away from her onto her bed.

She heard Spencer laughing, "_Yes, I did. Sorry, Em, I was just kidding. I didn't mean to scare you."_

"You didn't." Emily was always a bad liar, and was glad that Spencer let it go.

"_Feel safe to open it, I hope you like it._"

"I'm sorry I missed your call last night," Emily said, in an attempt to change the subject. "Are you okay?"

"_Yeah, I'm alright_." Spencer said, "_I just miss you. It's definitely not the same without you here._"

"I miss you too." _A lot, actually. _Emily thought. "And everyone," she added. "Maybe I can visit one day?"

"_The next break you get is for Thanksgiving, I don't think Mrs. Fields is going to let you go here. Plus, it won't be safe for you to be here._"

"That far along? I don't think I can last without seeing y'all until summer."

"_Y'all?_" Spencer laughed again, and even though Spencer was laughing at her expense, Emily didn't mind. She just wished she could actually see her smiling. "_I thought you're in Kentucky, not Texas._"

"Spence, you need to get out of Rosewood and meet more people." Emily laughed.

"_I suppose I can just go to Kentucky, and pick up a Southern accent in a couple of days. I wonder how Melissa would take that._"

"She'd love it." Emily said. "I think you and Melissa will be the beginning of World War 4 or something."

"_Yeah, it's me against the world, right?_"

"No." Emily said, "I'd be on your side."

"_With you, then we can take the world." _Spencer said, "_Em, I have to go, Mrs. Bourassa is following me around the library, I'm pretty sure she wants me to get off the phone._"

"Call me later?" Emily asked, and sighed.

"_Yeah, and I'll text you during the day. Bye._"

"Okay, bye." Emily heard Spencer say "Hanging up now" to whom most likely be Mrs. Bourassa, the old librarian at the public library, before Spencer ended the call.

Emily took a deep breath before taking the box in front of her back to her lap. She tried to find a sharp object that could open the box quicker than her trying to pry off the tape that wrapped around the small box. She managed to find a pen by her nightstand, and she ran the pen's ballpoint against the tape toward the middle of the box.

When it opened, she found a note written by Spencer, which she could tell because of Spencer's distinct handwriting she had seen many times from looking at her school work and from the notes they passed each other during class. The note read: _In case you were starting to forget about me._

Emily took the note and put it on the nightstand, there was a small box underneath the note. She took it out and found a black digital frame, already powered on and programmed by Spencer to hold various photos of her and her friends and occasionally photos of just her and Spencer, taken a few days before she had left. She skimmed through the photos and stopped at one photo of Spencer hugging her from behind, both of them smiling wildly into the camera.

She smiled as she remembered the events of that day, more particularly that hug from Spencer. It wasn't any special, it was just the four of them (Hanna, Aria, Spencer and herself,) hanging out like usual, but for that day they didn't let A get to them. So they were actually able to have fun. All of her fear of A that was building up all day disappeared for a moment. She closed her eyes and pulled the frame close to her as she felt Spencer's arms wrapping around her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Spencer headed over to the Sports section of the library, walking up a couple of floors to get there. She was surprised to see that Mrs. Bourassa was no longer following her.

From what she remembered from her dream, she noted in her mind the approximate number of girls in the field, the type of jerseys they wore, the kind of ball that was thrown at her—she had deducted that the sport was rugby. She had seen some games on TV, when her father used to watch them with Melissa and her sister's rugby player boyfriend. She just never heard of women playing rugby. At least not in Rosewood.

She usually preferred to learn a sport by being in the field or court, not through books, but knowing that she didn't really want to play this particular sport herself but just learn a little bit more about it, reading about it would be sufficient. She didn't even understand the significant of learning the sport, but it gave her an excuse to get out of the house. Perhaps if she had known more about it, she could be interested—another chance for athletic bling for her.

She realized that she could have Googled about rugby, but she didn't want to spend the time inside the house sitting in front of the computer. It was the last day of summer for her and it was predicted to be a nice day, so why spend it indoors? She found a book that was small enough to carry around with a bit of history and how to play the sport. She decided it would be a good idea to have the book so she had something to read while waiting for her teammates to arrive when she got to practice.

Spencer walked up to the front desk; a younger girl was working there. She knew the girl from one of her classes, Timber. She was tall and lean, even when she was standing next to stack of returned books, she wore a red Argyle sweater that fit loosely on her upper body. She turned to fae Spencer with a gentle smile.

"Morning, Ms. Hastings," she greeted.

Spencer was not used to being addressed to as Ms. Hastings by someone younger than her, especially when she was not at her father's country club or when she was in a public space. She was also a little hesitant to interact with strangers, putting a wall against everyone she didn't know or meet. A little trust issue that developed thanks to A.

"Morning," Spencer replied, "Working the front today?" She had noticed the girl around the library before, usually pushing a small cart of books around with her and putting books back on the shelves. Spencer put the book in front of her with her library card on top of it.

"Yeah," the girl said quietly, "Mrs. Bourassa wanted to patrol the library. Wouldn't understand why, it's been pretty dead here." She grabbed the book from the desk and scanned it, then typed a few keystrokes into the computer in front of her. Then she handed the book back to Spencer. "Anything else I can help you with, Ms. Hastings?"

"I think I'm good for now," Spencer said, trying to be polite, "Thanks."

The girl nodded and said "Have a nice day!" Spencer walked out with the book in her left hand.

Spencer grabbed her gym bag from the passenger seat of her silver Toyota Rav4. She placed the book inside and put the shoulder strap over her head and walked toward the women's locker room of Rosewood High. The locker room was quiet, but doors were opened. She hesitated for a bit but she headed toward her locker anyway.

She took off her shirt and Capri pants, folded them, then took out her practice uniform, a white top with blue lining and the blue plaid skirt. She placed her cell phone onto a shelf if her locker, and as soon as it touched the shelf, it vibrated. A fear shot through her.

_This would be a nice way to die,_ she thought, _me caught by A in my underwear._

She took a deep breath and readied herself and took her phone from the shelf. She closed her eyes, and opened one to peek. It was a message from Hanna. She let out a sigh of relief. "Did you hear there's a new girl in town?"

Spencer decided to put her uniform on before replying to the text. Four lockers from hers was Emily's. Through the quietness, she remembered a day from a year ago when Emily got out of the shower, covered only by a white towel and stood behind her as she changed out of her field hockey uniform.

_"You know, Spence, you should just quit hockey and join the swim team." Emily said. "The girls are really nice." Spencer was complaining all weekend about how the girls in her field hockey team are too aggressive and are snobby, and how she was sick of it. Emily moved to Spencer's other side._

_"I'm not into girls, Em!" Spencer said, giving a little laugh even though she felt as though it came bit defensively. She closed her door of the locker and locked it up._

_"I didn't mean it like that," Emily said quietly, then added, "It'll be a nice change of environment for you."_

_"Yeah, I don't have the body for that."_

_"You have a nice body." Emily walked to her locker, opened it and started to put on her clothes._

_"Maybe, but not like yours. Swimming is your thing, not mine." Spencer moved closer to Emily who took the towel off her chest and put her bra on. She whispered, "Plus, I don't know how to swim."_

_"Wow, something Spencer Hastings doesn't know how to do?" Emily gave her a smile as her head popped out of the shirt she just put on, "Interesting."_

_"It's not that interesting!" Spencer said, her eyes moving down and up on Emily's body. "Don't tell anyone." Emily laughed._

_"Chill out, Spence. I will just have to teach you!"_

Spencer's reminiscing was interrupted by the noises in the room as her teammates walked in. She saw all the familiar faces flooding into the room, none of them were new to her, none of them was their new coach. She put her clothes into her bag and zipped it up; she grabbed her stick and gym back then walked out to the field.

She knew the girls were not going to rush out of the locker room, especially when the coach was not yet there. She sat down on the bench, pulling out the rugby book from her bag. She started flipping through it, reading the brief thorough history of rugby. She heard her phone's text message notification. She put the book down on her bag as she grabbed her phone. She was looking through her messages when she heard someone say, "You'd make a great hooker." She turned to where the voice was coming from.

"Excuse me?" Spencer asked, her eyes widening when she saw a pair of green eyes with honey eyeing her up and down.

The girl smiled, "It's a rugby position," she said, pointing to the book on top of Spencer's bag. "In case you were planning on playing, that would have been my initial assessment."

"You play?" Spencer's turn to eye the girl. She was a bit taller than Spencer, but only by a few inches. Her dark hair was straight, but gently flowing against her structured cheekbones.

"Left wing and captain," the girl said, putting her bag next to Spencer's, "Well, _used to_, I guess. Your school doesn't have a team, so this is my last resort." She shrugged, "I'm sorry for being rude, I'm Micela." She held out her hand to shake Spencer's, her grip was gentle but firm. "AKA 'the new girl'." She smiled again.

Just from this brief interaction, Spencer could already feel the intensity of the girl and could tell that she would bring it on the field as she does off of it. _A competition, s_he thought. "Spencer Hastings," Spencer said, returning the smile. "AKA, 'that bitch'."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

Emily didn't want to go shopping for uniforms, especially with her mom. It always seemed like she had an opinion for everything, and most of the time she and Emily disagree on their opinions. It had been difficult coming out for Emily as her mother had fervently expressed how disgusting she thought Emily's "choice" was. And ever since they had moved to Kentucky, Emily had said very little to her mother.

Emily received a text from Spencer, asking her how her day was. She smiled as she stood in front of a mirror, ignoring her mom holding up a white button up blouse with long sleeves in front of her. Spencer was in the middle of field hockey practice and normally she would not be on her phone until she's a few hundred feet from the field, but something must be throwing off her day.

Spencer's passion and intensity in the field are two of the things Emily admired about her best friend. She's focused and she always knew what she wanted. Emily loved watching her play. Plus she looked good in her uniform. Most of the time, Emily couldn't make it to her friend's games, having her own games to go to. But when she does, watching her is almost better than playing herself.

"Emily, you need to try this on with the blouse." Pam Fields said, holding up a gray pleated skirt.

"Thanks," Emily took the skirt and the blouse and walked inside a fitting room. She heard her mom say "I will go look for your shoes," and she was gone.

Emily texted Spencer back, and sent a couple of messages to Hanna and Aria. Aria was spending the day with Ezra Fitz, her old English teacher and boyfriend, and Hanna was out shopping for a first day of school outfit with Mona.

_Guess they're all doing their own thing, _she thought. She wondered if the girls would even hang out together if she was home. She probably would have hung out with Toby Cavanaugh that day, listening to the Smiths (their favorite band) while Toby worked on his motorcycle and teaching her a few things about it. Any excuse to be away from her mom.

* * *

><p>Spencer reached the center line, and shortly after Micela followed. She stopped to catch her breath, leaning down with her hands on her knees. Micela was in the middle of telling her how she would make an awesome Wing as well. One of the girls who came in late for practice had told Spencer that the new coach is waiting for them in the locker room after practice. So Spencer, being the captain of the team, shouted to everyone to go to the locker room to meet the coach.<p>

They all headed to the locker room in a disorganized pile, Spencer was the last to go in. The girl, whom did not look older than 24, came out of the coach's office and scribbling into her clipboard. Behind her clipboard was a small booklet with a brown leather cover that Spencer had assumed was her playbook.

The coach did not say anything but looked at everyone who then became quiet. She was about as tall and slender as Spencer, her hair was long and straight in dark brown and she had bangs covering her forehead. Spencer remembered her because she graduated the same year as Melissa who hated her, so Spencer made a special note on the girl.

"I am Suzanne Pacheco," The girl finally spoke, her voice was soft but firm in her speech. "I played Field Hockey since junior high all throughout college. I had also played softball and soccer since then. I am a Rosewood alumna, and just recently graduated at Hollis for Athletic Training. I am certified in both ATC and high school coaching." She did not smile or blink. "I have made a few changes to the how things were running, which we will all discuss before tomorrow's practice so come early." She paused and looked at her clipboard. "Is Spencer Hastings present?" Spencer raised her right hand and walked toward the coach. "I would like to speak with you about a few things," she said directly to Spencer, "The rest of you can go." Spencer followed her to the office while the rest of the team scrambled around the locker room.

When the coach was done talking to her, which took at least fifteen minutes, Spencer closed the door and walked toward her locker. She packed her things into her bag. She was changing out of her uniform when she saw Micela walking out of the shower towards her, her body wrapped with a white towel, her hair wrapped with another towel. She stopped four lockers from Spencer's.

"Are you taking that locker?" Spencer asked Micela, whose eyes wandered up and down Spencer's body. Spencer quickly put her clothes on.

"Yeah, why? Is someone else using it?"

"No, no one. It used to be my best friend's." Spencer replied, letting out a soft, sad sigh.

"Do you want me to move to a different one?" Micela said, now looking at the opened locker, doing a mental inventory of what's in it and how much effort it would take to go to another locker.

"It's okay, she's not coming back." Spencer closed her eyes.

"Is she dead?" Micela asked, "I don't know if I'd like to use the same locker as a dead person's. Especially if she was your friend."

"She's not dead, she and her family just moved to Kentucky."

"I'm sorry." She looked at Spencer who had a few strands of her hair sticking onto her forehead due to sweat, "So, no shower for you, Captain?" the girl asked, as she put on deodorant.

"No, I have some things I need to do after. Kind of in a hurry, actually." Spencer looked at her watch, then quickly mentally kicking herself for speaking too much about her personal business and letting others see her feelings without even asking her about anything. She had made an oath not to trust others, no matter how nice they seemed, and not to voluntary talk about what's going on with her life—especially with A still out to ruin her life. "ey, I have to go," Spencer said, pulling the strap of her gym bag to her shoulder. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah," the girl said. Spencer turned away before the girl could take the towel from her body.

Spencer sped over to the country club only to find that her dad has not even gotten there yet. She looked at her phone and found a voicemail from her dad telling her that he and the client had moved the meeting an hour later than originally planned. He also noted that the client was unsure if the daughter was going to make it, but Spencer would still have to go to the country club regardless of whether the girl showed up or not.

Spencer groaned, deciding to go to the country club's changing room to take a shower. It only took her less than ten minutes to shower and get ready, putting on a light blue sleeveless shirt paired with a white skirt. She felt a bit exhausted but had no choice but to do what her father had told her to do. She tied her hair into a ponytail and walked out, with her bag and her racket, toward the tennis courts. She was on the second floor, looking down onto the courts, to see her dad talking to a tall man with dark hair whom she assumed to be Mr. Maxwell Tyler.

Peter Hastings waved at her to come down. Spencer played with the strings of her tennis racket, slightly moving the strings around, as she walked toward her dad and his company. He introduced her by name only, almost disregarding her familial relations with her. She just assumed that he had already told him that she was his daughter and that he didn't need to reiterate it, as he disliked having to repeat himself.

Mr. Tyler had told her that his daughter was going to be late and apologized. Mr. Hastings told him how excited he was to show the club to him. She decided to practice her serve in case the girl showed up, knowing that her dad would not just let her leave. She walked toward an empty court, dragging a full tennis ball hopper with her.

The ball hopper she had was almost halfway empty; in the midst of groans and hits, she heard a voice calling out to her. "Are you mad or something? That's an angry serve."

Spencer wasn't aware that she was being watched, and it almost made her feel more angry. She turned around to see Micela standing a few feet away from the court she was playing at. "Are you stalking me? Because you're doing it pretty badly." Spencer said, tossing a ball back into the hopper and walked towards the girl. She was wearing a pair of skinny jeans and a fitted tee. Not an appropriate outfit for playing tennis. Quite different from the girl she saw in her dream.

"I was supposed to be on a date with nice and smart girl. I didn't think it would be with '_that bitch_,'" She grinned at Spencer. "I'm kidding, I got lost on my way here and my date just sent me a message saying she's got some emergency she has to deal with."

"I am just seeing you everywhere today," Spencer said slowly.

"I've only seen you twice today; I hardly think that's everywhere." Spencer contemplated on telling the girl about her dream, but didn't want it to mean anything more than just a dream, especially since the only thing she really wanted to remember from it was Emily.

"You're not Mr. Tyler's daughter." Spencer said; it was not a question.

"Nope, Mr. Robinson's."

"Guess I'm not playing tennis."

"Is that all you do? Focus on games? Are you compensating for something?" Spencer looked at her blankly, and the girl quickly apologized as if she had offended her. "Did your date bail on you?" Spencer nodded. "You can continue to play while I watch." Micela offered, smiling.

"No, it's okay." Spencer grabbed a towel from a shelf near the courts and wiped her face. She saw that it had been almost an hour since she started playing, and assumed that the girl was not going to show up. She also believed that her father would not even notice if she had left. "Do you want to grab some coffee? You can tell me all about your dates."

"Okay, but just so you know, I usually prefer blondes."

Spencer shook her head and smiled. "Well, don't make yourself too funny, I might end up liking you."


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N: So sorry about the wait, I've been slammed with school and work the past couple of weeks. Thank you for your patience! 3  
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><p><strong>Chapter Six<strong>

Emily finally let the photos run in the slideshow mode, after going through a week with staring at just a photo of her and Spencer in it. She put her uniform on and packed her bag for school.

She had been going to school for three days but she still feel lost in the sea of military kids in various uniforms, from different grades, which also denoted what activities they participated in. Emily's uniform designated that she was a new, and she knew that she wasn't the only new in the school; she had seen others with the same uniform. But from the look at their faces, she assumed that they were in junior high.

The way the students carried themselves in their uniform told quite a bit about them. At least for Emily's imagination. It was a game that she got used to playing with her friends, especially when Alison was around. Except when Emily played, everyone had a good side to them. Alison always had something negative to say.

Emily watched as they walked from one part of the hallway to another, mostly in pairs or groups. Some walked in a structured, organized formation, with their fists clenched. They were marching. Emily wondered what life would be like at home. She imagined them having to do push-ups if they had something less than perfect at school. What happened if they got in trouble?

Lost in her thoughts, Emily tried to walk faster without running, trying to get her classroom so she won't be late. She looked at the numbers on the wall by the door as she walked. She accidentally bumped into someone who was walking out of another room. She looked at the floor where some of her books went, and the person she bumped into bent down as she did to help her pick her things up.

"I'm sorry," Emily said.

"I'm sorry, too." She had a blue ASU coat and slacks on, her blonde hair was slicked back into a small bun; and she held a hat without an emblem and her satchel in her one hand, the other holding Emily's book

"Thanks," Emily said, taking her book from the girl. The girl nodded. She was a little bit taller than Emily, only by a few inches. She had dark blue eyes that pierced through Emily. A few girls who wore the same uniforms as the girl came out of the room and stood behind her. Emily recognized them as the Fort Knox High School Color Guard members.

"Are you lost?" The girl said, when Emily looked around and back at a paper she was holding. "I can help you."

"Yeah, thanks." Emily said; the girl turned around and dismissed her friends. "I'm supposed to be in American History, with Ms. Jeffrey."

"Really? Me, too." The girl smiled, "I'm Samara, by the way."

"Emily." Emily shook the girl's hand she walked side by side with Samara as she led her to the stairs, through an almost empty hallway. They went through four more doors and two hallways until they got to the History Department of the school.

"Wow, I'd never would have found this without you."

"No, you were really close." She smiled and opened the door, motioning for Emily to go in.

"Oh, Miss Fields, thank you for joining us." The woman standing in front a whiteboard said, "but next time, would you mind joining us _on time_? You too, Miss Callahan." She said, finally looking at the two girls by the door. She was younger than Emily had expected, but she had a stern look that Emily had seen many times with her father's colleagues. "Well, go on and take your seats."

At the end of class, Emily was putting away her book when Samara appeared by her side. "So, can I walk you to your next class?"

"Thanks," Emily said, "I'm supposed to be in.." She signed and pulled out her schedule, "Trig."

They started walking toward the Math Department, up a staircase, through the middle hallway. Emily was trying to be mindful of her company and tried to sense how she walked so she could mimic it. Samara must have noticed it.

"You don't have to march when you're walking with me." She said, as they reached Emily's Trigonometry classroom. She looked at Emily oddly. "I should have seen the connection," Samara said, "You're Lieutenant Colonel Fields' daughter, right?"

"You know my dad?" Emily asked, her eyebrow raising up.

"Everyone knows your dad, Emily. He's a big hero in this base." Emily wondered how come she had never known about it, how her mom and dad never mentioned a word about it to her. "We can talk about it later, if you want. I probably shouldn't be late for my other class. It's in the other side of the building." She adjusted the strap of her satchel on her shoulder and smiled at Emily. "Try not to get lost, alright? I'll see you around."

Emily walked in the room and took a seat. She paid some attention to the lecture. She had been thinking about how much she had missed the things going on with her family, as she barely saw her parents at home. How can she know not about her dad being a hero though? Wasn't that the kind of thing you tell your daughter? It was just as if he was thousands of miles from her again, and it made her sad because he was always home in his bed at night only a few steps away. She made a mental note of reaching out to her dad as much as she could.

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><p>Spencer was laying on her stomach, tapping her pencil against her notebook as she read through the book underneath it. She then wrote a few lines after she finished the paragraph. Aria and Hanna had planned on coming over later that night and she knew she wasn't getting any homework done with them around. She missed when Emily would come over earlier to ask her for help with her homework before their other friends came around. Emily was a smart girl, and she didn't need a lot of help with school work, but Spencer appreciated the time they spent together.<p>

Three pages of notes later, Spencer put her pencil down and turned around to lay on her back. She felt more exhausted than usual; handling the Homecoming committee, trying to balance her AP classes, and being pushed harder by her new coach because she was the captain—dealing with A was just the cherry on top of it all.

She closed her eyes for a few minutes; she was almost dozing off when her phone rang. She woke up and reached for her phone quickly, she had set up a different ringtone for Emily, whose smiling face covered the screen of her phone from the call. "Hey, Em," Spencer said, trying hard to sound more awake. She heard Emily sighing before returning the greeting. "How are you? How's school going?"

"_I hate my uniform for school._" Emily said, "_I miss wearing jeans and a shirt. But, I bet you would have enjoyed it here._" Spencer remembered when they were starting the seventh grade, she had written a proposal to make their school wear uniforms, because she thought the kids would focus less on how they look and would maybe study more. She laughed.

"I'm sure you look good in it," Spencer said, reassuringly.

"_A lot of the kids here are like the poster children of the military, where they'd freak out when there's a slight dust or wrinkle on their uniforms._" Emily added, "_And I just look like I am going to Hogwarts._"

"Pics or no proof," Spencer said, finally sitting up. "I wanna see you in your new uniform."

"_No way, I am not sending you a photo!_" Emily said, "_You're just going to have come here to see me in it."_

"How's everything else over there? Your mom still giving you a hard time?"

"_We're still not on a regular talking routine, but I feel a bit left out of my family. There are a lot of things going on, and I end up hearing about them from the kids in class."_

"You're making friends? That's great, hopefully they're more trustworthy than the people in Rosewood."

"_Spence, you're the only one who thinks everyone's up to no good._" Emily said, laughing to indicate she was joking. "_So far I've made one. Samara, she's an senior. So I'm not a complete social outcast here."_

"Is she hot?" Spencer said, biting her lip in anticipation for Emily's response.

"_She's probably the best looking girl in the military uniform in this school, and looks just as good in civilian clothes." _Spencer gave out a sad sigh, it wasn't an answer that she really wanted to hear but she asked the question, so she had better been prepare for whatever answer Emily gave her.

"You've seen her in civilian clothing?"

"_Yeah, we hung out after school today._"

Spencer could hear Aria and Hanna talking indistinctly by her hallway. "Em, Aria and Hanna are here, do you want to talk to them?"

"_I actually have to go, I'm supposed to go to dinner wit my family. My dad came home early from work, and we haven't seen each other in a long time. And I've already talked to them earlier. I just wanted to check on you._"

"Yeah, we can talk more later if you want. Call me when you're free?"

"_Of course. Tell them I said hi."_

"Will do. I'm missing you already," Spencer's words slipped out before she noticed Aria standing by her door, with Hanna grinning widely at her. She heard Emily say "_Miss you too, bye,_" before the call disconnected.

"Who is Spencer Hastings missing?" Were the first words to come out from Hanna, as Spencer had expected. "Are you dating? Who's the boy? What's his name? How did you meet? And why are you not telling us?" She took a sharp short breath before asking a series of additional questions. They moved towards Spencer's bed and sat down. Aria settled herself on a red bean bag chair on the other side of the room.

"I have no time to date," Spencer said, closing her notebook and book and putting them away on to her nightstand.

"But you obviously have time to miss someone!" Hanna insisted, "Who was it?"

Spencer wasn't quite ready to accept her feelings for Emily, especially when she wasn't even sure about how Emily felt about her, it didn't help that she was several hundred miles away with a hot senior girl as her competition. "It's not important."

Aria gave a stern look at Hanna, telling her to drop the subject. "So, do you think A had finally given up?" Spencer looked at Aria, grateful for changing the subject. "I haven't gotten anything from him-her-it in a week."

"I think it's that calm before the storm thing," Hanna said, disappointment for not getting answers to her questions was clear from her voice.

"Calm before the storm?" Spencer said, "Knowing A, this is more like the _storm before the rapture_."


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N: Thank y'all for continuing to read my story! I hope to get to post new chapters sooner. I appreciate all your comments._

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><p><strong>Chapter Seven<strong>

It was around 2330 hours when Emily hung up the phone with Spencer that night. She had ignored the sound of TAPS that played at 2100 hours in the house, and the lights were all off in her room. They had talked about how she was thinking about joining Fort Knox High School's swim team, as she had been missing being in the water and did not like not being able to work out, and how Aria's relationship with Mr. Fitz had been getting stronger because Aria had told him about A and how she didn't have to lie about things any more. Hanna complained about how she was the only one single in their circle, even though at the moment it was really only Aria that was in a relationship.

Spencer had talked about how A still manage to ruin her day, and how she had speculated that her new coach could be a possible A since she's pushing Spencer over the edge. Emily had explained to Spencer what she had learned from the military, how in the military they push the leaders harder than the other members, and that was what was happening with Spencer. Spencer had told her how she also felt that her teammates were holding back because they hated her, and she was the one that got punished whenever they slack off.

Emily lay in her bed and looked at the photo frame longingly before closing her eyes. She knew that breaking her bedtime tonight would have had a negative effect on her the next day but did not care since she were able to talk to Spencer for a few hours. Lately, Spencer had been falling asleep early that they weren't able to talk as much, and she appreciated her taking the time to talk to her. Even with making friends at her new school, Emily still didn't feel quite right in Kentucky.

_Emily received an urgent message from Spencer and had agreed to meet with her at the Wright's Playground. She didn't know how she ended up back in Rosewood, but decided to go to Spencer anyway, disregarding the thought that this could have been a trap from A. The only thing she wanted to do was to make sure Spencer was okay and she would have done anything to keep it that way._

_She walked from her car through the dark woods, flinching every moment she heard a noise, calling out, "Spencer?" Spencer was not at the playground when she got there, a cool breeze passing made her shiver and a dark ominous feeling shot through her._

_"Spencer!" She called out again. When she heard Spencer's screaming from afar, she began to ran fast, trying to follow the sound of Spencer's voice. "Spencer!" She called out louder, "Where are you?"_

_Emily could see Spencer being held by three hooded figures, she could see Spencer trying to fight their hold on her but was struggling. She tried to move faster toward Spencer._

_"Emily! Behind you!" Spencer screamed; Emily turned around to see another hooded figure who grabbed her with a rough, decomposing hand. She noticed the pink nail polish on the fingernails or whatever was left of them; if that wasn't enough of a sign that it was Alison who was holding onto her, a few golden locks slipped from the hood. When the decaying Alison revealed herself completely, while still holding onto Emily, the one behind Spencer also took off the hood and revealed himself to be Ian Thomas. He moved closer to Spencer, his face decaying as much as Alison's face was. He tried to smile, but part of his lips fell off, his teeth rotting and inching closer and closer onto Spencer's shoulder.._

Emily woke up before she could figure out what was about to happen in her dream, a little damp from sweat even though it was a chilly night. It was still dark out; she looked at the alarm clock and found it was only 0438 hours. She sighed. She decided to just run around the base until school started. It was going to be a long day. 

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><p>"Hastings!" Coach Pacheco screamed across the field, surprising Spencer that a small figure like her coach can be that loud or scary. "Get your ass over here!"<p>

"Yes, coach?" Spencer said, panting.

"Did you know that half of your teammates came to practice late today?" She flipped the clipboard holding up the time sheets of the girls on her team. "Now you know what you have to do, Hastings." Spencer took a deep breath. One push up for every minute the girls were late, each.

"Seriously?" She said to herself. She got to her feet and started doing push-ups, only 153 to go.

"You think that's bad, Hastings? You have five laps waiting for you after you're done." Spencer took another deep breath, and thought about all the words she could call them but decided to keep the words to herself. "Get your teammates' acts together, Hastings."

Spencer was halfway through her third lap when she noticed Micela joining in behind her. "Coach's gone, you know—you can stop now."

"It's okay, only two more laps to go." Spencer continued to run. She was too mad to stop.

"You're going to hurt yourself!" Micela tried to run faster to catch up, "You haven't even hydrated since you started! Don't make me come and tackle you, because you know I will!"

Spencer paced herself and slowed down. "This is bullshit," Spencer struggled to get the words out while trying to catch her breath.

"Don't punish yourself for those girls. We'll get them back for this." Micela smiled, handing Spencer a cold water bottle. Spencer took a few gulps before pouring some on herself, soaking her sweat-drenched top.

"That was a bad idea," Spencer said, shivering from the cold water. She looked at Micela and they both burst into laughter.

Spencer passed out on her bed as soon as she got home and woke up around 10 pm. Today at practice was just brutal and she felt the soreness of her arms and her legs. She grabbed her phone and sent text messages to Aria, Hanna and Toby. She had missed a couple of calls from Emily.

She wondered if Emily was still awake, and decided to call her back anyway. "Hey," Spencer said when Emily answered.

"_Hey, Spence,_" Emily replied, "_Tough day at school?_"

"That would be an understatement. I feel like the girls are intentionally punishing me by doing stupid things like not showing up on time for practice or forgetting their equipments."

"_They're just jealous of you getting all the medals all the time._"

"Well, if they push themselves harder, they would be closer to where I am." Spencer sighed, "But I'm not their mother, I shouldn't be running after all of them, making sure they have everything they need."

"_But you are the captain, so talk to them._"

"They hate me. Only one will listen."

"_Talk to that one girl and get the others to listen to her?_"

"Yeah, I'll figure it out later." Spencer said, "I'm sorry. How are you? How was your day?"

"_It was okay,_" Emily replied with a yawn, "_I didn't get much sleep last night._"

"Any reasons why?"

"_I've been having nightmares about you._" Emily said, then quickly added, "_I mean, they weren't bad dreams because you were in it.. they were bad because of other things.._"

"Well, what happened?"

"_There were zombies, two particularly nasty ones were going after us._"

"Em, you need to stop watching scary movies before bed." Spencer laughed, "Sounds like we both could use a vacation, huh?"

"_Yeah, so you should come over here._"

"We have school tomorrow."

"_You can always skip._" Emily recommended, "_Who am I kidding? Spencer Hastings has never missed a day of school since.. ever!_"

"Don't make me sound so geeky. But yeah, I am somehow even there when no one else is."

"_So be bad, skip school and come over here._"

"Go to sleep, Em. You could really use some. Just.. no more zombies, okay?"

"_Fine,_" Emily sighed, "_Good night, Spence._"__

"Missing you already." Spencer said quietly, hanging up.


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N: Yes, big fan of the games. The movies are alright. Thanks for catching on on that! This is for all of you who have been waiting for some Spemily action.. :)  
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><p><strong>Chapter Eight<strong>

Spencer sat in her English class, not paying attention at all to the work that Mr. Fitz had assigned them. She stared blankly out the window, surprised that she even made it out of bed. She could feel her sore body still, even though she had already taken a couple of pain killers after breakfast.

She didn't notice how time had passed until Aria had tapped her in the shoulder telling her that it was time to go to the next class. She walked autopilot to her Finance class and stared out the window again. Her teacher handed her a paper in which she only received an A for, without the plus.

_Today sucks. :(_ Spencer sent the message to Emily who replied with "_Even more reason to come here._"

_Yes, okay. I'll be there at 1am._

"_Really?_" Was the last message she had received from Emily, and she had contemplated on the idea in her next class. She dreaded the idea of going to practice, especially with how sore she felt. Before lunch, she had decided to just go home.

_How's that for being bad?_ Spencer thought to herself. She came home to an empty house, her father and mother were out for the day. She laid on her bed, not knowing what to do with her time away from school. She figured that since it was Emily's idea to skip school, she ought to visit her. She looked around her room, if she were to leave for a 12 hour trip, she needed to pack and get out of the house before her parents come home.

Spencer took a shower and got ready. She wanted to wear something cute for Emily, but something still comfortable to wear for the long hours she's going to spend on the road to Fort Knox. She had packed her essentials along with three days worth of outfits, all which she had placed into a clean, unused gym bag that was in her closet. She had placed her toothbrush and charger into her purse; and with one last look in the standing mirror, she headed to her car.

Spencer was at a rest stop I-70 in West Virginia, already 6 hours and 340 miles into her travel; only halfway to go. She sat at a table in Starbucks by one of the exit's Interstate Rest Area, swirling a cup of hot caramel latte around. She had already missed lunch and almost missed dinner but she felt her stomach was in knots, and had very little appetite to eat anything; so caffeinated drinks would have to do. Spencer sat by silently, and recalled the very day she had admitted she liked Emily.

_It was a few days after she had broken up with her first and only boyfriend, Alex Santiago. He was sweet, and romantic, and was always there for her, but she couldn't see him the way she really wanted to. She tried hard to want to be with him, but couldn't even get herself to kiss him._

_Spencer spent the afternoon helping Emily with her schoolwork, or rather- doing the homework for her. She was so upset with herself over not feeling that spark with such a nice guy but she couldn't lie to herself with being in a fake relationship with him, while her older sister Melissa seemed to have picked a winner in Ian Thomas._

_"Are you okay, Spence?" Emily said, closing the book in front of her and putting it in her messenger bag before turning to Spencer who was laying on the bed, staring at the ceiling._

_"I need to get some steam off," Spencer said._

_"As you wish," Emily said, smiling, "what do you want me to do?"_

_"Well, do you wanna play tennis?" Spencer looked at her friend and bit her tongue, as she had wanted to say something else._

_"Okay, but I'm not very good."_

_"I can teach you a few things." Spencer stood up and headed to her closet._

_"Why do you like tennis so much? It seems like it's more your passion than anything else." Emily said, following her towards the closet. "What is so great about it?" she asked, believing that Spencer always had great answers._

_"Watching girls hit a little green ball back and forth hoping that the wind would blow her skirt up high enough to get a peek at her butt cheeks?" Spencer was looking through her closet for her skirt and missed the half-surprised look on Emily's face._

_"Oh." Emily replied, "Yeah, I guess that's good too. But I was wondering about actually playing it." She laughed as Spencer turned towards her._

_"Oh, well, I never really thought about it." Spencer said, softly and truthfully. "When I'm on the courts, I don't feel like I'm not being judged, that I can be myself, but on the courts is where you actually get judged a lot- in terms of grace and poise for the games." She paused and looked into her closet again, she took off her shirt and added, "All eyes are on you."_

_"I guess it's better that I'm usually doing freestyle in the water that I can't see all those eyes when I'm swimming." Emily said, now bending over toward her duffle bag to look for a good tennis outfit. She pulled out black running shorts, but Spencer stopped her._

_"No, that won't work." Spencer grabbed a skirt and a shirt from her closet and tossed it toward Emily, "did you just totally miss out on what I just said tennis is about?"_

_"Apparently." Emily smiled, pulled her shirt off, and put on the Reebok fitted polo shirt, the sleeves shaping her arm muscles and making her abdominal muscles rather noticeable. She took off her shirt and was in her underwear for a few seconds before pulling on the skirt._

_"Let's get going then, it seems we've a lot to do." Spencer said, trying not to stare. Emily nodded and followed Spencer out of the house and into her car._

_"First, we must stretch!" Spencer said, as they reached the tennis courts at Spencer's dad's country club and laid their bags against the walls._

_Emily smiled at her friend; she had noticed one thing about the girl: her unwavering confidence. She seems like the type to _play to win_. Compared to herself, she had always been intrigued by how much confident Spencer was._

_They tried many different kinds of stretches and exercises. Jumping Jacks, Side Shuffles, Alternate toe touch, etc. At the end of warm-ups, Spencer looked at her and smiled. "Okay, time for the good stuff!"_

_"Good stuff?" Emily said, "Oh. The actual playing."_

_"Yeah." Spencer took out her racket, it had a yellow frame and silver strings with a _P_ in the middle. "What do you want to learn, backhand or forehand or service?" She handed a green and silver frame with white strings with a W in the middle to Emily._

_Emily gripped her racket on her right hand, "Forehand is when you hit the ball from the side where you naturally hold your racket, right?" she asked._

_Spencer nodded. "Yeah, and backhand is the opposite," she said holding the racket across her left body and swinging it as she would for backhand. The muscles on her right arm quivered a little. "All is left is serving, I guess." She went to grab a tennis ball hopper and pulled it to her side. "Well, I'd still have to show you to properly hit them. Stay there." She said to Emily who was standing at the right side of the center mark of the court. She went to the other side of the court with the ball hopper, standing diagonally from where Emily stood._

_"Okay, well, basically.." Spencer held the ball and tossed it up and down, swinging her right arm holding the racket. "A serve is, like in badminton and volleyball, how each point starts." She positioned herself so her body was sideways, her left leg in front. "Do you watch tennis on TV?" Emily nodded. "So you've seen how they serve, right?"_

_"But they're so fast." Emily said._

_"Practice s'all. Anyway, there's a basic serve for beginners." She bit her lips. "Called the pattycake." She tried to keep her face straight, but Emily knew that it was a funny term and she knew Spencer wanted to laugh. "Instead of making your arm swing, it's like you hit it by pushing your racket forward to hit the ball."_

_Spencer made the hand movement to show Emily what she meant. "Okay, let's see you try the ground strokes first." Emily nodded. All day, she noticed, nodding was the only thing she was able to do. "You have to position yourself better," Spencer said, crouching a little, "like this," and her body rocking to the sides, left to right. Emily copied the way Spencer moved, but less smoothly. Spencer just continued to smile._

_Spencer couldn't help but smile at Emily. There was something beautiful and genuine about her that Spencer had always admired, and watching her become so lost in the whole mess of knowledge that she was trying to absorb from her made Emily even more adorable in Spencer's eyes. She shook her head, trying to shake off the fear that was beginning to creep up on her._

_"Alright, here's a slow one!" Spencer yelled as she tossed the ball up in the air and hit the top of the ball making it spin forward while moving forward, forcing the ball to curve down over the net._

_Emily stared and blinked. "That was a slow one...?" she said, shocked._

_"Oops." Spencer scratched her head, "Sorry. Let's try again?" She tossed the ball again, swinging at it and hit it very flat and low over the net without any spin. Emily ran forward to hit it with her forehand. The ball went straight towards the net, but did not go over. "Nice try."_

_For fifteen minutes, which seemed like hours, Spencer continued to serve while Emily hit. For a beginner, Emily wasn't that bad. After just a few tries, she was able to hit the ball inside the court, but she still needed to work on her backhand._

_"Your serve." Spencer said, picking up a ball and throwing it toward Emily with so much force that it just flew by her as if she hit it with her racket._

_Emily was shocked again. "Show off!" she said._

_"I swear, I don't mean it to be like that." Spencer grinned._

_"Sure." Emily shook her head, smiling too. She picked the ball from the floor, bending over. "Okay, here goes nothing..." she threw the ball into the air, but as it went down, she ducked._

_Spencer jogged toward her, laughing. "Well..." She cleared her throat._

_"Yeah, that was awful." Emily admitted._

_"Hey, you just need to.." Spencer moved closer, standing behind Emily. "Okay, first of all..." Her right hand touched Emily's hand, whose index finger was not around the racket but was used as the support for the racket. "Don't do that." Spencer said, removing the index finger gently and wrapping it around the racket like all of Emily's fingers. She tried not to sound irritated, because she was not at all—in fact, she was having a great time with Emily. But she wanted to be firm but reassuring._

_Spencer placed her left hand on Emily's waist, moving her like a sculptor molding clay. Emily was like clay because she did not move, she just let Spencer do as she felt was proper, for the love of the game. Spencer moved her body so that Emily's body was slightly slanted, her hand sliding slowly downward toward a lower part of her waist._

_Then, Spencer reached out for Emily's left hand. With Emily holding the ball, the closeness was somehow overwhelming for Spencer, especially when she can still smell the hint of the vanilla perfume that Emily was wearing despite her sweating through their lessons._

_"Okay, serving..." Spencer whispered, slowly trying to catch her breath without Emily noticing, and rocking her left hand (while still holding Emily's hand) back and forth gently, "you just toss the ball into the air, high enough that when you aim for it with your racket, that you can hit it when you swing." She tossed the ball in the air, "Don't hesitate, it's just a ball. Don't be scared of it."_

_Emily nodded and tried to hit the ball, which she was able to hit successfully. Spencer let go of her as quickly as she could. It started to pour, which was perfect for Spencer—it gave her an excuse to run toward the wall to hide her fast-beating heart._

Spencer received a message from Emily saying "_Hey, Spence, haven't heard from you all day. What's going on?_" Spencer quickly replied, _You'll find out soon enough._

She was in Cincinnati when she stopped to get gas; she saw a giant map that said "You are in Cincinnati, OH" next to the door of the Women's Restroom. She took a picture of it and sent it to Emily. She received a message back saying "_Are you really coming here?_"

_Yes, I'll be there in about 4 hours._

"_You're not just kidding?_" Emily sent her back. _No, I am not. I'll see you soon._ She sent and headed her way back to the car.

The drive was supposed to be a little over twelve hours of a ride, but it took Spencer almost fifteen hours because of the stops she had made and she got lost trying to find Emily's house from the houses by the base because all the houses looked the same. When she had finally made it to Emily's house, she called Emily, who didn't answer. "_Hey, this is Emily, leave a message!_" Was the message she received before the beep prompting her to leave the message.

"Hey, Em, you're probably sleeping, so I guess I'll see you sometime in the morning. Missing you already." She said, catching a yawn. She turned the engine off in her car and reclined the driver seat backward. Leaning onto her door, she closed her eyes and fell asleep.


	9. Chapter 9

_A/N: Sorry for the super short chapter, it looked a lot longer on my phone compared to this.. Thank you all for continuing to read my story!_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Nine<strong>

Emily heard her phone vibrating, and then a short notification sounding she had a voicemail. She grabbed her phone, and even before the message finished, she ran downstairs- wearing only a loosely fitting shirt over her underwear. She shivered when she opened the door, but didn't care that she wasn't even wearing shoes when she ran out.

She recognized the vehicle outside her house, and since it was still dark out, Emily didn't see Spencer in the passenger seat. When she finally saw Spencer, she was overcome with excitement.

_She looks adorable, _Emily thought and her lips formed a smile before letting out another shiver. She was brought back to earth by the cold breeze, and the realization that Spencer was sleeping in her car that late at night. She quickly tapped on the window, startling Spencer, who quickly got out of her car and ran to her. They almost fell over when Spencer almost tackled her into a hug, but she was able to compose herself enough to hold them up.

"Let's go inside, huh?" Emily said, holding Spencer's hand and leading her inside the house. She led her to her room, and told her to lie on the bed. "You need to sleep."

"I am not tired," Spencer said, followed by a yawn; she was lying in Emily's bed.

"Yeah, you're not tired." Emily yawned herself. Spencer laughed but before Emily could give a comeback, she was already asleep. Emily covered her with the blanket, and crawled onto the other side of the bed. And as she closed her eyes, she felt Spencer reach for her hand and their fingers intertwined.

Emily woke up alone in her bed, and was confused. She could have sworn that she had Spencer there but when she opened her eyes she was gone. "Spencer?" She said, a little apprehensively.

"Hey, Em, are you okay?" Spencer said, sitting on the foot of her bed.

"Why are you wearing clothes?" She must have said it out loud because she noticed the confused look on Spencer's face. She quickly shook her head and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I am here to save you from zombies." Spencer said, smiling. She looked as if she was waiting for Emily's reaction, and then decided that the question must have sounded unwelcoming because she said in a low voice, "You told me to come here?"

Emily sat up, stared at Spencer in disbelief, and started poking Spencer in her shoulder. "What are you doing?" Spencer's eyebrow was arched up.

"I just wanted to make sure you're really here." Emily replied, quickly pulling away her hand after she realized what she was doing. "You drove twelve hours just to hang out with me?"

"Technically, fifteen hours. I got lost somewhere around Cincinnati, and then again by the base."

"You're crazy," Emily said, "But I am happy that you're here." She leaned over to give Spencer a hug, which lasted for about a minute. She sighed before releasing Spencer from her tight embrace. "What time is it?"

"Almost 1030am." Spencer said, "So, no zombie dreams last night?"

"No, I slept great." Emily smiled and looked at her friend, "Were you able to get enough rest?"

"Yeah, I'm alright." She smiled, "so, what are we doing today?"

"I hope you don't mind," Emily started, looking down into her hand then back up at Spencer. "But, I actually had plans with Samara. I didn't think you we're really coming over and I promised to watch her and the color guard ceremony today. And we're going to dinner with her and the rest of the girls after. I'd love for you to join us."

"I wouldn't want to impose."

"I don't think they'll mind. Plus, I don't think you drove fifteen hours just to sleep on my bed." Emily thought she heard Spencer mumble out "Only if you were in it," but she let it pass. "So we can eat lunch then get ready to go?"

Spencer had no choice but to nod and agree. "So, no time for shopping?" Spencer said, "I forgot to bring my clothes. I had them all packed, but forgot the bag. I was just too excited to be here."

"You can borrow my clothes." Emily said, "Feel free to raid my closet."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

Spencer stared at Emily's clothes while her friend was taking a shower. She noticed that she and Emily had different fashion tastes. Although they were both smart, athletic, and came from both prestigious families, Emily's style was more laid-back as her closet was filled with jeans and Henley tops and sleeveless sweaters while she had preferred a modern East Coast preppy look with vintage inspiration.

She had always adored Emily's look because she had always looked good, but having to wear them herself made her feel less comfortable. She was going to meet her potential competition for Emily's heart; she knew very little about Samara except that she is Fort Knox High School ROTC Color Guard, and that meant that she'd be used to dressing up professionally. That meant Spencer needed her outfit to turn heads.

Spencer looked through each item that was hanging in the closet, and moved through them slowly, remembering Emily wearing some of the outfits back in Rosewood. She noticed a lot of clothes that looked new, some with tags on still. A lot of them were dresses. She smiled because she had rarely seen Emily in a dress, although she always looked stunning whenever she did. Furthest down in the closet were Emily's school uniform, the white long-sleeve button down shirts and skirts. She grabbed one pair and held it up in the air.

"Find anything good?" She heard Emily say as she walked toward the closet where she was, wearing only a blue-striped towel around her body.

"Haven't decided yet, but you should put this on for me." Spencer said, holding the uniform toward Emily.

"Oh no, you're not going to turn this into a Britney Spears video."

"No, I just wanted to see if you can get Hermione Granger to apparate here."

"You do know they send owls, right?"

"Just wishful thinking," Spencer said, smiling. "You told me I have to come here to see you in your uniform, and so I'm here!"

"You need to shower and get ready," Emily said, finally taking the uniform from Spencer's hands and put them back in her closet. "I will find an outfit for you and it will be ready for when you get out. Just don't lock the door."

"What if your mom walks in on me?"

"She's not home, Spence." Emily said, looking around her closet for something to wear for herself. "Don't worry I'm not raiding my mom's closet for your outfit."

"Your mom has hot clothes, though!"

"Spence, shower." Emily said firmly while pushing Spencer lightly, "Now."

* * *

><p>Spencer waited in the bathroom for Emily to come over with a towel and clothes, but didn't really know what to do.<p>

"Spence," Emily knocked on the door, finally. "Are you decent?"

"Em, you have the clothes." Spencer said.

"Okay, coming in." Emily opened the door by eight inches, poked one hand in waiving a towel around. Spencer grabbed the towel and dried herself then opened the door to let Emily in. She walked in holding the clothes in one hand, covering her eyes with the other. Spencer smiled.

Spencer grabbed the clothes from her and held it up in front of Emily, comparing what Emily had to what she had given her.

"That's your Sunday church clothes, Em!" Spencer said, looking back and forth at Emily and the clothes in her hands. "Are we going to church after?" Emily had on a light purple polo underneath a jean jacket, and tight leggings. Emily laughed.

"Grab whatever you want then."

Emily left Spencer in her room to go to the basement, she wanted to load Spencer's clothes into the laundry before they leave. Spencer ended up with a blue and white striped tank with a cardigan and cropped distressed jeans. Emily came back to her room, and saw Spencer standing in front of her mirror; she smiled, "Wow."

"What? What's wrong with it?" Spencer turned around, startled a bit.

"I didn't even think of combining those together, but you look amazing." Emily said. Spencer smiled. "We gotta hurry up though, we have to get to the ceremony soon."

During the ceremony, Emily pointed out which of the Color Guards was Samara, who was one of the individuals who were carrying rifle weapons. Spencer admired and respected her as she watched the girl maneuver around the field with the rest of the Color Guards. After the ceremony ended, Emily grabbed Spencer's hand and led her through the crowd to meet with Samara.

Samara was surrounded by a crowd of girls and boys who were all wearing different types of uniforms and clothes, she had a bright smile on her when she waved at Emily and Spencer.

_She's beautiful._ Spencer thought, _This could be trouble._


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

Emily and Spencer approached Samara closer, and Spencer bit her lip. Samara was even more beautiful up close. Emily introduced Spencer to Samara who smiled as she shook her hand. _She's even more charismatic._ Spencer sighed.

"Emily talks so much about you," Samara said, looking at Emily who blushed. "And the other girls," she added.

"All bad things I hope?" Spencer said, smiling.

"Oh, yeah, terrible stuff." Samara smiled back.

"Then they're all true," Spencer laughed and the rest of the girls laughed as well.

They hung out for a bit and then ended up at Samara's house. It was a big, Dutch Colonial-styled house with light blue painting. Emily and Spencer stayed in the living room while Samara changed out of her uniform. They looked around at the photos hanging on the wall of Samara's parents, her dad in his Army dress blues, her mom who was as beautiful as she was. Next to it was a picture of a younger man whom Emily had pointed out was Samara's older brother, who was wearing the Airman Battle Uniform of the United States Air Force.

They were discussing life in the military when Samara came back down wearing a black soft-knit top with dolman sleeves and faded jeans, and her hair was down. "Yeah, I am not always wearing uniforms." Samara said, smiling as the two girls looked at her in wonderment.

At dinner, Samara introduced Spencer to her friends Quinn and Zoey. As they chattered and laughed and talked about school, two older boys approached them at the table.

"You girls want to go to a party tonight?" One of the boys said; Samara's friends looked at each other and grinned. The boys left them their numbers and the address to the house where the party was going to be held.

Spencer wasn't really in the mood to go to a party, but had no choice because Emily had decided to go. When they got to the party, there were a lot of people that they didn't know- in fact, they didn't know anyone at all. They guests were mostly older people who looked like college-aged, no one around their ages but them. The two boys approached Zoey, who left with one of the boys to go into the kitchen. Samara followed Zoey and Quinn went to talk to a tall blonde girl whom Samara nor Emily did not recognize; Emily and Spencer went to see where Samara went.

The kitchen was crowded with more people, and they could not find Samara there. Spencer scanned the room, and found two doors connecting to the kitchen, probably leading to different parts of the house. Emily explained to her that it seemed unlike Samara to just leave them in the crowd without saying anything, but it had only been a couple of days since they've met so it wasn't really her place to judge. Spencer suggested to go looking for her separately, to cover more grounds. Emily agreed to meet back in the kitchen when one or the other had found Samara.

Emily headed back to the door she just entered back to the hallway, after watching Spencer disappear in the crowd. She started by the first door from the kitchen, and found a group of people huddled around in the middle of the room playing the college-student version of "Spin the bottle." It involved a lot of alcohol and stripping. She closed the door when she didn't find Samara there.

Emily went to the living room, and there were a few people sitting on the couch, while there were two girls in another love seat making out. A boy stood behind her with a couple of shots of clear vodka on a tray. She decided to ask for help, "Have you seen a blonde girl about this tall," Emily held her hand up to what she meant was Samara's height, "wearing a black top?"

"Perhaps," he said, "if you take a shot with me, I will tell you where she might be."

"Stop bothering the poor girl," A girl, who did not look like she could be old enough to drink herself, got up from the couch. She had been eyeing Emily since she had entered the room. She had a long and dark wavy hair that flowed gently around her chiseled face; she had a seductive smile on her face. "I'm Shayna," she said, moving closer to Emily, shaking her hand while taking a shot with the other.

"Emily," she said in return, looking at the girl whose dark brown eyes were glistening, but she wasn't sure if her eyes were always like that or if the gloss was from the alcohol. "Want one?"

The girl said, holding up another shot glass after she just took another. "It's pretty good."

Emily shook her head, "No thanks, I'm just looking for someone."

The girl tried to look disappointed, "Even if I tell you it's my birthday?" She said, following it with a soft pout.

"Come on," the guy said, "For her birthday!" Emily shrugged and gave in.

"Fine." The guy gave out an excited "Yes!" and handed her a shot glass while the girl took another two. It took her two swallows to finish the one shot, and she winced as the vodka burned her throat. The girl held her seductive smile and looked at her without a blink.

"It's not your birthday, huh?" Emily said after returning the empty shot glass back on the tray.

The girl shook her head, "No, but come with me, we're playing Kings!" The girl grabbed her by the hand and led her to the living room couch, where there were more people that she had noticed in the beginning (none of which was Samara,) and they were gathered around the coffee table filled with playing cards. "You pick!" the girl pointed to the cards. Emily felt somewhat obligated to follow whatever the girl say to her, but was looking for a way out. The girl grabbed a white binder from another girl she was sitting next to, and opened it up to the rules page while explaining the most basic concept of the game. Emily grabbed a card from the pile and was unfortunate enough to draw a Joker, which was explained to her was the "Choker" and that she had to chug a whole cup of drink til it was finished. Shayna handed her a cup full of light beer, and started to chant "Chug! Chug!" Everyone joined in as Emily started to drink from the cup. She spilled a few on her shirt while trying to drink it really fast. Emily tipped the cup over when she was finished, feeling slightly tipsy from the drink as she had never drank as much (or ever) before those drinks she had just consumed. Shayna winked at her and smiled, filling up her cup and handing it to her.

Spencer was with Samara looking for Emily. She had found Samara in one of the rooms on the second floor, arguing with someone. She was amazed at how composed she was even when the girl she was arguing with was throwing things around. She didn't realize how much time had passed between her leaving Emily and her going to the living room- and just in time too because Zoey came out from the crowds and walked up to Emily, "Juice?" She held a cup to Emily and waved it around before sitting down next to her. Emily took it, knowing that there were most likely something else aside from juice in the drink. She took a gulp and swallowed hard. "Em, what are you doing?" Spencer said, rhetorically, and Emily turned to look at her.

"I don't know." Emily said, taking another sip; Spencer could tell that she was already intoxicated. "Want some?"

"No, I'm now your designated sober driver," Spencer said, staring at Emily in disbelief. "Are you going to join the keg stand over there, now, too?"

Emily tried to stand up, and fell over, but Spencer caught her. "Mrs. Fields is going to hate me for this." Spencer looked at Samara, who just nodded in understanding.

Samara tapped Zoey on the shoulder and told her they were leaving the party. Emily waved goodbye at Shayna, who was avoiding Spencer's glares, and her drinking buddies. Samara, who was also sober, led Zoey along with Spencer who was holding Emily toward Zoey's Audi A6. Samara had Zoey sit in the front seat, and Spencer helped Emily to the backseat. Spencer held onto Emily's hands while she laid her head on Spencer's shoulder and Samara drove them all back to her house.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

When Samara arrived at her house, Spencer thought about taking Emily back to hers. She figured she might be able to sneak the two of them into the house and be in less trouble that way than Emily being drunk somewhere else that her parents didn't know. Samara sat in the seat and waited for Spencer to make a decision; she must have offered for the two of them to stay at the house and Spencer just missed it. She looked at the girl holding on to her and sighed.

"I think it's best if we go home," Spencer said to Samara, "if you can just help me get her into my car?" Samara nodded and went to the backseat of the car, and opened the door. "Thanks."

Samara apologized, feeling partly responsible for Emily being drunk because she was the one who took them to the party in the first place. Spencer told her that she shouldn't feel bad because Emily was the one who had the choice to drink and did, and it wasn't Samara's fault. Spencer also mentioned how she didn't know why Emily would do such a thing, as she had never done that when they were together in Rosewood, at least not to the point of complete inebriation.

Spencer assured Samara that she will take care of Emily and that she will text her when she gets to their house and said goodbye. Samara apologized again and told her that it was nice to meet her. Samara watched Spencer get out of the driveway before realizing that Zoey was drunk in the front seat of her car, which she quickly ran to take care of her. As soon as Spencer had set up her GPS to go to Emily's house, she left. She looked at the girl in the seat next to her, looking as if she were in pain. At first she thought "as long as you don't puke in the car," but the moan that Emily let out made her worry.

"We're almost there, okay?" Spencer said, as she held the steering wheel with her left hand and caressed Emily's head and back with her right. "Just a few more minutes."

As she got to the house, she thought about ways on how to get upstairs without setting up alarms or waking up Emily's parents. When she helped Emily out of her car, she held her into her arm and supporting them both with as much strength as she could. She closed the door as quietly as she can and led Emily slowly toward the front door.

"Spence," Emily said weakly as she got to the front door. Spencer laid a finger on Emily's lips and told her to hush.

"Shh," Spencer said, trying to look for the key to the front door from Emily's keys in the mess of her key chains. Fortunately for her, she had taught Emily to organize and label her keys. She was able to find the key and got the door to open. She went in, struggling to hold Emily up (and quietly) while trying to lock the door. But she took her time, because the more she rushed through it, the more she would make noises, which elevates the probability of waking up Mr. and Mrs. Fields.

"Almost there," Spencer whispered to Emily as she locked the door. She looked at the stairways and groaned. _Why didn't I just agree to stay at Samara's?_ she thought, composing herself after a long sigh and leading Emily up the stairs. "Come on, drunky."

She didn't even know how long it took or even how she managed to get upstairs but was very glad to be at the same level as Emily's room. She helped Emily to her bed, taking her shoes off and covering her up with her blanket. Spencer looked at the time on Emily's phone as she texted Samara their safe arrival, and it was only 11pm. She laughed at how time had gone by so quickly but it was still pretty early. She put the phone down and saw Emily falling asleep.

"No, no, no," Spencer said, "Please, don't just go to bed yet, we have to change your clothes." She sighed, "I guess _I_ have to." She looked around for an appropriate thing for Emily to wear, because the clothes the girl was wearing were reeked of alcohol. _What did you do? Swim in vodka and beer?_ She thought when they first arrived in the room and the rest of the room did not smell like alcohol, but Emily's shirt were still wet; but when she came back to Emily with a t-shirt and shorts, she looked at the girl who was laying in bed in front of her.

"Stop the room from spinning.." Emily mumbled. Spencer sighed again, _How are you so drunk and still be so adorable?_

She slowly changed Emily's clothes and tucked her in under the blanket. She quickly texted Samara before changing out of her clothes to shorts and shirt, similar to what Emily's now wearing. She sighed again, a little exhausted and dreading the hopefully 12-hour drive back to Rosewood the next day. She crawled onto the bed next to Emily, but didn't get under the blanket, and laid on her back.

Emily moved closer to her, unaware that she wasn't under the blanket as she was, and tried to wrap her arm around Spencer but the blanket hindered her from doing so—so Emily left her hand lingering around Spencer's waist, then buried her face onto Spencer's shoulder.

Spencer could still smell the alcohol from her breath, but tried to ignore it as she felt Emily's warm breath against her skin sending waves through her body. She closed her eyes and mustered the courage to place her hand over Emily's, even though the blanket were caught in between their hands, stopping her from intertwining her fingers with Emily's. She felt Emily's attempt at pulling her closer, but was unsuccessful; so she pushed herself slightly closer to Emily.

"Spence," Emily said, not moving. "I love you."

"I love you, too, drunky." Spencer said, smiling to herself. 

* * *

><p>Spencer got out of bed to go to the bathroom, when she got back, she tried to get back to the same position that she had before she left. It was almost 0145 on Emily's alarm clock, and she felt a little cold. Emily must have felt her shivering because she had whispered, sleepily, "Are you cold? Why don't you get under?"<p>

Spencer obediently followed and landed at the same position they were in, then Emily, not opening her eyes, pulled her even closer. Spencer tried to control her breathing, as she didn't want Emily to notice her heart beating fast and hard especially since her hand is now by her stomach.

Spencer woke up spooning Emily, with Emily holding her hand to wrap around her body; she swore she felt Emily pushing her body back to minimize the small distance between her and Spencer, which frightened Spencer who justified Emily's actions the night before were part of her intoxicated state, but was sure that Emily would at least be sober up by this time. She had wondered if Emily had not mind having her arms around her, and what it meant. Spencer reluctantly rolled over to the other side of the bed, slowly as if she were doing it while asleep, to break the spoon session with Emily. A few moments later, she felt Emily moving around the bed.

"Why is the room so bright?" Emily groaned, her voice a little hoarse then added, "my head hurts."

"That's what you call a hangover," Spencer said, moving to face Emily.

"I drank a lot?" Spencer nodded, "Did I do anything stupid?"

"Well, aside from pounding vodka and beer to the point of not remembering the night before, nope. You were a surprisingly good drunk."

"Did I say anything..?" Emily had a worried look on her face, but Spencer shook her head; she didn't want to bring up Emily telling her she loves her, as it was something that they usually say to each other within their small circuit of friends. "I'm sorry that you drove all the way here from Rosewood just to take care of drunk me."

"Well," Spencer said, smiling at Emily, "you're going to have to make this up next time."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

Emily watched as Spencer got out of bed to stretch. She hated the idea of Spencer leaving, but was distracted by the sight of the girl in her clothes. Last sleepover they had together was a few nights before she had moved to Kentucky, and Aria and Hanna were also there. They had spent all night talking and laughing that they barely slept at all. But she remembered the red satin pajama set that Spencer wore, which was one size too big for Spencer's slender body. She would have thought that it was Melissa's old pajamas if she didn't know that the Hastings do not really like hand-me-downs.

Even though they were about the same body size, Emily noticed that Spencer's hard workout with the new coach showing through her clothes. She didn't mind seeing Spencer wear her clothes, and especially didn't mind waking up next to her.

"Yes, next time you are here, all my attention is yours." Emily managed to blurt out. "But, let me know ahead of time so I can plan accordingly?"

Spencer stretched to her feet, bending over; Emily sat up and cleared her throat. She looked away and bit her lip, "So, are you going home soon?"

Spencer straightened herself then replied, "Yeah, it's gonna be a long ride back. I don't even know if my parents had noticed I've been gone."

"You can't stay even for coffee?"

"It'll be midnight by the time I come back, I didn't even get to do my homework yet!"

Emily pouted, "Not even for a few more minutes with me?"

Spencer looked at Emily, "Well, I _could_ use a hot latte before I go." Emily smiled victoriously at this. "Do you mind if I shower first before we go though?" Spencer started walking towards the door, taking her shirt off exposing her lean back at Emily. "Oh!" Spencer exclaimed, she covered her chest as she turned toward Emily, "Em, can you please bring my clothes into the shower?"

Emily's mouth was slightly opened, nodding slowly but not entirely understanding what Spencer had said. She had to blink a couple of times to get back to the reality Spencer standing shirtless in front of her. 

* * *

><p>Emily took Spencer to The Edge, a local coffeehouse outside the Fort Knox base. It was a small and quirky café, but Emily had bragged about how this has the best Gingerbread latte, which was Spencer's favorite drink, and that it was altogether better than the café that Spencer loved back in Rosewood.<p>

The café was filled with women, around their age up to mid-forties; Emily explained to Spencer how the café was owned by a lesbian couple who had to fight so many people to be able to run their business, because a lot of people (who believed in conservative and traditional ways of living) didn't want to have a "gay café" around their children and family. Emily waved at the girl who was standing in front of the counter, she smiled and waved back. Emily urged Spencer to walk forward and introduced her to the barista, Ninja, who happened to be the owner of the place. She had a long black hair and did not look like she was over 25 years old. Spencer even wondered if she were even close to that age, especially because she had that childish aura about her.

"Well, haven't seen you around before," Ninja said to Spencer, shaking her hand and sizing her up.

"Well, I'm just visiting." Spencer said, "I'm from Rosewood, Pennsylvania."

"Spencer promised that if you make her the best coffee, she will move here just for it." Emily said, "So, you better not disappoint me, Nin."

"Oh, thanks, Emily, no pressure, right?"

"You already know you make the best coffee," Emily said, "So, don't sweat it."

"Thanks," Ninja said, "So, Spencer, how do you like your coffee? Any particular taste you want?"

"I'll try anything, as long as it's hot and sweet." Spencer replied.

"Just how I like my women," Ninja said, smiling.

"And exactly how many women are there in your life?" said a taller girl, who just came out of the kitchen door.

"Solamente tu, babe." Ninja said, shaking her head. The girl grabbed a tray of dirty dishes from the sink and went back to the kitchen. "Excuse her, she's just crazy," Ninja said. "You girls have a seat though, I'll bring you the best lattes I could make."

Emily and Spencer sat down at a table closest to the counter as they waited patiently for their drinks. Ninja came back with two mugs on a tray and laid it out on the table, she placed one cup in front of Spencer. After the steam from the drinks had quickly dissipated, Spencer pointed out the decoration on the foam of a flower. She was impressed by it, and could not wait to try the drink. Emily looked at her patiently, waiting for her to respond. She pulled the cup and slowly sipped from it. Ninja now looked at her too.

"This is absolutely the best latte I have ever tasted." Spencer said, sipping on it again.

Ninja and Emily smiled, "I'm glad you like it." Ninja said, "So, we should be expecting you to move next week?"

"I'll move here tomorrow if I could." Spencer said, "I wish we had coffee this good in Rosewood."

Ninja winked at Emily and left, mouthing, "You owe me one!"

Emily and Spencer continued to drink their lattes, and conversed about the night before like the things that Spencer had witnessed at the party and Emily's drunken adventure, completely unnoticing that over an hour had passed. Emily's phone rang loudly, as she had forgotten to turn it on silent the night before. Samara called inquiring about her current condition and asked if Spencer had already left because she wanted to invite both of them to brunch. Spencer looked up at the wall clock to the side of the café, above the kitchen door and realized that it was almost 1130 in the morning.

"Em," Spencer waved her hand to catch the girl's attention, then pointing at the wall clock. "It's getting really late!"

Emily had excused herself from the phone conversation with Samara. "So, you should just stay for another day." Emily said, pouting again.

"I wish it was that easy." Spencer said, looking at the empty cup in her hand. "But homework, and my parents, and that long drive back.."

"Well, I guess you can just drop me off home then." Emily said in a low melancholy tone.

Ninja had two to-go cups in her hands as she approached the girls. "Hey, I hope you don't mind but I overheard that you're leaving." Ninja said, "So I made you these for the road. On the house." She smiled as she put the cups down on the table, one for Emily and one for Spencer.

"Thank you very much," Spencer said, "this was absolutely the best cafe I've been to so far."

"We should probably hurry," Emily said, standing up. "Thanks, Nin."

* * *

><p>Spencer parked in front of Emily's house, leaving the car engine running. There was a short silence between her and Emily before Emily opened her door and got out. Spencer worked around the car to meet her at the passenger side.<p>

"You sure you don't want to stay?" Emily said slowly, looking at Spencer as she closed the door.

Spencer took a deep breath, "Em, homework..?" Spencer bit her lip, knowing that she really wanted to stay. "You forgot your drink," she said, looking at the girl who was empty-handed. She was about to open the door to get it but Emily stopped her.

"I've had enough drinks for today," she smiled, "You keep it for your ride, give you something to think about."

"I'll be thinking about.." Spencer's words trailed off, "..a lot

Emily pulled her into a tight embrace, which felt long, but in reality she wanted it to go on longer. "Be safe, Spence."

"I'm missing you already," Spencer whispered to Emily as she reluctantly pulled away from the hug.

She gave her a smile, then walked back to the driver side of her car and got in. She waved bye to Emily and waited for her to get in befor driving away.


	14. Chapter 14

_A/N: Sorry for the lack of Hanna or Aria in the stories, I know y'all probably like 'em too.. but I'm still working on Spencer and Emily getting together! Haha. Thank y'all for reading!  
><em>**  
><strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Fourteen<strong>

"_You should free up your weekend,_" Spencer said, her voice a little hoarse, as if she's getting sick, and she sounded exhausted. Because she had skipped Friday's practice, Coach Pacheco had punished her with double practice, to make up for her missed hours, for the past couple of days.

"Are you coming over?" Emily said, excited about that thought. It's one of the best things she's heard all day.

"_Thinking about it_," Spencer said, "_I could use the getaway.._"

"Well, you know you're always welcome here." Emily said, she closed her eyes. She kept subconsciously reaching to the other side of the bed where Spencer had slept during the weekend that just passed. "What are you planning?"

"_I don't know yet_." Spencer let out a yawn.

"How about you let me plan?" Emily suggested, her brain started going into tangents about what she would like to do when Spencer came over.

"_Sounds dangerous,_" Spencer said.

"Only to someone who's used to taking charge," Emily waited for a response.

"_Okay, fine,"_ Spencer said, "_Looking forward to it._"

"Great!" Emily said, surprised that Spencer had surrendered quickly, without arguments. _Wow, she must really be tired. _"Do you want me to let you go so you could rest?"

"_It's fine,_" Spencer yawned again. Emily felt bad, she wanted the girl to rest but she insisted on staying awake. She wished that Spencer was next to her so she could just hold the girl til they both fell asleep. She hoped that over the weekend, she could have enough courage to tell Spencer about her feelings, but was scared to make the first move or that she would ruin their friendship.

Emily stayed on the phone until she herself had fallen asleep, saying nothing to Spencer but tried to enjoyed the rhythmic sound of her breathing (with the occassional static from the call,) and the call had disconnected.

When Emily woke up, she still had the phone in her ear. She had a brief moment of thinking that she was the one to fall asleep during the conversation, as it was what usually happened before, and she quickly said, "Hello? Spencer?" not realizing that the call had been disconnected for a few hours already.

She got ready for school, and when she was done she rushed to the garage to look for things that she may need for when Spencer gets there for the weekend. She had planned something special, and she wanted it to be as memorable as possible. She had considered talking to Samara about her plan, to get a few input on how she should approach the situation with Spencer, but thought maybe she would be busy with ROTC; she decided to take a visit to the cafe and bother the barista, Ninja, instead.

"You have to be honest with your feelings," Ninja said, smiling reassuringly at Emily. "And if she's your best friend, she will try to understand, but of course I am hoping that she likes you back."

"Yeah," Emily said, swirling her cup around, "It's just the last time I tried that, it didn't exactly work out that way either. She wasn't a good friend afterward."

"Maybe she wasn't a good friend to begin with?" Ninja said. "Spencer doesn't look like that; in fact, Daniela thought you guys were a couple already."

"Really?" Emily asked, looking up from her cup at the girl.

"Yeah, she was like, 'aww, why couldn't we look as cute together as those two.' Probably didn't help that you couldn't get your eyes off each other, huh?"

"I thought she was just uncomfortable with being at a different place."

"She looked like she'd fit right in."

"Yeah, I think when I came out to our friends, they had thought that Spencer would come out first." Emily let out a small laugh, "But she never did." She sighed, "What if I was wrong about her?"

"Well, you'll never know unless you tell her, right?" She turned around to see a group of girls walking into the cafe, "Guess break's over." She smiled at Emily, "Good luck with what happens and let me know how things go?"

* * *

><p>Emily sat in her last class, tapping her pen against the desk in anticipation of the end of the school week, but was mostly excited (and a bit nervous) for Spencer's visit. She had everything ready and packed in the trunk of her car, but knowing Spencer, she'd probably insist on taking her car- Emily didn't mind, as she had liked watching Spencer from the passenger seat. But for tomorrow, she would have to drive because she couldn't trust herself giving directions to where they were going. Plus she liked the idea of being in charge of this weekend.<p>

She almost ran out of class when she realized that all the other students were watching her. She smiled shyly and as she reached the door, her phone rang. "_Hey, Em,_" Spencer greeted.

"Please tell me you're not changing your mind about coming over?" Emily said, her excitement going down.

"_No, no, I'm still coming._" Spencer said, "_But I will be in pretty late, because I have to go to practice. I will try to leave as early as I can, but I will definitely be there._"

"Okay, great." Emily said, "I can't wait to see you."

"_I will call you before I leave._" Spencer added, "_Missing you already._"

"Bye." Emily hung up her phone and was about to put it in her backpack but felt it vibrating and a notification sounded that she just got a text message. Excitedly, she thought it would be a text from Spencer, but her heart sank when she opened it.

The text included a few photos of Spencer with another girl, sitting at a coffee table, laughing together- and another of Spencer and the same girl hugging. Emily scrolled through the message to find a note:

_You've replaced me, how does it feel to be the one replaced? - A_


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

Emily wanted to ignore the message she just received, mostly because she didn't know how to process it, and she didn't know how to talk about it with anybody else, without having to confront Spencer first. She couldn't go to Samara or Ninja about it without having to explain A, which is something she didn't want to explain to a lot of people.

Perhaps A meant that she was being replaced as Spencer's best friend, although she was sure it meant something else- because A had said "you've replaced me," and if the message was from Alison, this was not a platonic relationship that they were discussing. But how could A even know her feelings for Spencer? And has A assumed that Spencer felt the same way and was trying to make her jealous?

Even Emily herself was unsure about Spencer's sexuality, making her more hesitant about approaching her best friend about her feelings toward her. Emily had decided that no matter what, she still needed to make the weekend special for Spencer like she had promised. She sighed and went home, waiting for Spencer to get to her house.

When Spencer arrived at the house, Emily was more awake so Spencer didn't have to sleep in the car. She waited by the door for Spencer who, like last time, looked exhausted. "We have to rest up," Emily said, "we have a long day tomorrow."

"Should I be worried?" Spencer said, smiling."No," Emily closed her eyes, hoping that her excitement isn't as visible in her eyes as they already do in her voice. "It'll be good, I hope.""What have you planned?" Spencer whispered as Emily led her through the stairs to her bedroom again.

"You'll find out in the morning, but for now, you need to rest." Emily said.

"I don't want to sleep." Spencer said, "I just got here."

"Please just go," Emily said, "I promise to still be here when you wake up."

"I'm not tired yet," Spencer said, but Emily pouted. She threw her arm in the air in surrender, and dropped her body onto Emily's bed, facing away from Emily. She didn't say anything or moved.

* * *

><p>"Spence, are you upset with me?" Emily whispered; Spencer felt Emily joining her onto the bed and wrapping her arms around her. She couldn't help but no longer be upset. It would be something she needed to work on controlling better because no one had or should have that much effect on her. "Would it make you go to sleep early if I tell you <em>one <em>thing we're doing tomorrow?" Spencer stayed silent and unmoved, continuing to play mad. Emily inched over closer then said, "Okay, well, if you're going to sleep next to me, you're going to have to change your clothes. You smell like Ohio."

"What does Ohio even smell like?" She said, laughing as she turned and because of their proximity, her lips brushed softly against Emily's. She quickly turned her body away to lay on her back.

"A mix of.." She took a swift sniff of Spencer then said, "Vanilla, coconut and sweat, apparently.. I don't know, but you probably should shower or something." Emily made her face of disgust then laughed.

"You're just going to have to deal with that because I don't feel like moving." Spencer said, sighing. She closed her eyes, "What are we doing tomorrow?"

"Well, after breakfast, we're gonna go.." she paused then slowly whispered, "running."

"Running?"

"Yeah, I figured how much you love it.." Emily said, laying her head on Spencer's shoulder, "and we have to train for the impending zombie apocalypse."

"You watch way too many scary movies, you know that?"

"And you're not here to watch enough of them." Emily sighed, "If the global warming hits first, I am good because I can at least swim. But for the zombie apocalypse, we need to be fit enough to run away."

"I still don't know how to swim."

"I can teach you." Emily said. "but until then, you know that I will save you, right?"

"Right." Spencer leaned her head against Emily's head.

"Best way to experience the base it by foot," Emily said, "And there will be a quiz at the end of the tour."

"As long as there's coffee when I pass."

"There will be coffee when you wake up, you just have to go to sleep first."

Spencer closed her eyes then said, "As you wish." She thought about letting her head falling towards Emily's for another accidental brushing of their lips and wondered how the girl would respond to it. She wondered if Emily had noticed it earlier or whether it was just wishful thinking on her part and it didn't really happen. She decided that it would take too much of an effort to execute this and just pulled herself closer to Emily and tried to fall asleep.

They had both slept through the house alarm that goes off at 0330 hours, and woke up fifteen minutes before 0700 hours, the sun shining brightly through the windows in Emily's room. Emily tried to move to get out of bed, but Spencer stopped her, whispering softly, "5 more minutes?"

"I need to make breakfast." Emily whispered back, "I know how you get when your blood sugar drops."

"I'll be fine with just coffee after the run," Spencer said, "I'll try not to be a super bitch until then."

"Okay, but just five minutes." Emily said, laying back down. "Then no more changes to the plan."

"Yes, ma'am." Spencer said, holding Emily close to her.

When Emily opened her eyes again, it was over an hour that had passed. "It's fine," Spencer whispered to her ear, "We are just going to have to.. run faster, then." Emily still seemed upset, and Spencer could understand a little bit of it. Another hour they spent sleeping was an hour that they do nothing and an hour closer to her leaving again. But she didn't mind- she could just lay in bed all day, as long as Emily was next to her.

"I wanted you to see the base and where I live."

"You make it sound like I'm not coming back here," Spencer smiled reassuringly, "Can we just Google Earth it?"

Emily smiled, then shook her head, "It's not the same!"

"I am pretty sure I've seen the base my first time driving here, when I got lost and all.."

"It was dark then," Emily said.

"Okay, maybe we can just skip the exam." Spencer said, sitting up and stretching her arms out.

"You passing up an exam?" Emily said, "I don't believe it!"

"I just really want that coffee," Spencer smiled, "So can we just go running now?"

"Get your butt off the bed, then!"

Spencer and Emily were not the only one running that early morning. A few older women in formation in Army PT uniforms ran passed them, shouting off military jody cadences as they ran, led by a blonde woman who was running outside of the formation. A few men, also in the same uniform and in formation, ran behind the women. They paid the two girls no attention, and continued to run, focused on something neither one of them could probably figure out.

Spencer was running behind Emily as they came closer to Emily's school, "What's the matter, Spence?" Emily shouted, jogging in place, "Can't catch up?"

"I was enjoying the view," Spencer said, smiling as she caught up with Emily.

"Want to take a break?"

"Why? Are you getting tired?" She stopped when Emily stopped, trying to catch her breath. A few boys, some whom Emily recognized, ran passed them. A tall, tanned boy smiled as he passed, then picked up the momentum to catch up to his friends.

"I think Ben was just checking you out," Emily said, watching the boy look behind him to where they were.

"No, I'm pretty sure he was checking you out." Spencer said, the boys turned left at the end of the street to cross. "Besides, he's not my type."

"Isn't there anyone you're interested in?" Emily bit her bottom lip before turning her head to where the boys were now running, a couple of them looked back at them before running forward.

"Yeah, something like that," Spencer sighed, her eyes fixed on Emily.

"Are you going to tell me about it?" Emily had her hands in her hoodie pocket as she stretched her arms.

"Maybe," Spencer said, "If you can catch me!" And as she shouted this, she had already started running her few seconds headstart.

"Hey!" Emily shouted back, "That's totally cheating!" She said then ran after the girl.


	16. Chapter 16

_A/N: Happy New Year, my darlings. To celebrate the Pretty Little Liars winter premiere, which had helped me a lot with inspiration for this chapter (I've been having writers block for a while..) here's a little something. Really sorry for the late late post, and as always, I do appreciate you all reading my story!  
><em>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Sixteen<strong>

Emily had caught up to Spencer, and passed her before they reached the cafe, was grinning wildly at her triumph. "Now, you've got lots of 'splainin' to do!" Emily said, as she leaned against the door, trying to catch her breath. Spencer bit her lip and smiled as Emily opened the door.

They sat at the same table closest to the counter, but sat closer to each other this time. They whispered to each other, laughed about the old times and both avoiding the topic of A. Emily let Spencer do all the talking, as she loved hearing her raspy voice and in hopes that she would eventually bring up the girl in the photos that A had sent her. It wasn't like Spencer owed her any explanations, as they were not dating, but she just wanted to know how she should approach the girl about her feelings with the least, minimal amount of heartbreak on her end.

Spencer had managed to avoid the confrontation of her feelings with Emily, and she thought she was doing so without Emily noticing, but Emily looked disappointed though she didn't push for more information. She just focused her attention on asking Spencer the quiz questions about the base and her city that was written on a small notebook that she kept in her hoodie pocket.

"Drink as much as you want," Emily said, stopping Spencer from getting out of her seat to have another cup. "But you're getting cut off at five or I am going to have to introduce you to decaf."

"I never have problems falling asleep next to you." Spencer whispered, shyly smiling at Emily.

"Actually, let me get that for you." Emily said, putting her almost empty cup on the table and getting up. She was sincerely confused as to what's going on with her and Spencer. So she smiled back, and let out a frustrated sigh when she was facing Ninja.

"Still want the thermos of hot cocoa for tonight?" Ninja whispered as she finished a cup of latte and placed it in front of Emily.

Emily nodded slowly, "Yes, thank you very much."

"I will drop it off at your house, five o'clock a good time?"

"Yeah, I'll have her in the shower at that time before we head out."

"Okay, but you better make it to Lake's End before the sun sets," She tapped quickly on her iPhone and when she got the answers she was looking for, she said, "Sunset will be at 6:48 today." She looked at Emily, who gave her a weak smile, "Are you okay, girl?"

"Yeah, I'm just really.. confused. I don't know what's going on right now."

"Just tell her the truth."

Emily nodded. "Maybe tonight, we're gonna be alone together.." Ninja winked at her and was startled by her girlfriend coming out of the kitchen.

"So, does this mean she's moved here?" Daniela said, not as discreet about the conversation as Emily and Ninja had been. She had a smile on her face, which quickly faded when Emily looked toward her.

"I'm still working on convincing her." Emily whispered quietly, "I sometimes feel guilty though."

"Why?"

"That's a lot to ask from someone, give up everything to be with them."

"That is true." Ninja said, "I had asked Daniela to move from Peru to be with me, it sucked but.. well, she just couldn't resist me." She grinned. Daniela made a face at her and stuck her tongue out.

"She said she'd want to move next door or somewhere close to this cafe if she lived here."

"Well, you can tell her she can feel free to move in with us." Daniela said, and Ninja nodded. "We can always use the help around the cafe, since the barista is always on break."

Emily felt arms being thrown around her neck, "Hey, Em, you promised me all your attention's mine today!"

Ninja tried to suppress her smile as she watched Emily stiffen up from the hug and closed her eyes. "Still all yours," Emily replied, moving her hand to hold Spencer's.

"You girls should just make out already! You are too adorable!" Daniela said, before turning around to go back to the kitchen.

"Ignore her, I think her biological clock is ticking."

"Spence, your coffee is ready." Emily whispered, still holding Spencer's hand in hers, continued to have Spencer's arms wrapped around her.

"Ahh, just the words to my heart." Spencer said, her eyes glazing as she looked at Emily.

"Coffee?" Emily said, confused.

"Any word that comes out of your mouth, but coffee works too." Spencer said, releasing her hold on Emily only to continue to hold her hand as she grabbed the coffee. "So, what's next?"

"Lunch," Emily said, "If you're not too full from all that lattes you've been drinking."

"I'm getting spoiled today," she grinned at Emily, who couldn't help but smile back.

"We don't have to go if you don't want to."

"I want to, Em." Spencer said, "I'm having a great time."

"I hope you keep thinking that until the end of today."

"I don't want today to end." Spencer said.

"We will just have to make the most of it."

* * *

><p>After lunch, Emily took Spencer back to her house so they could hang out for a bit before getting ready for dinner. Emily told Spencer that she didn't need to wear anything fancy for dinner, which was good since Spencer didn't really get to bring anything special.<p>

Emily had made sure that Spencer wasn't around when she had stepped outside to meet Ninja, who was holding a giant thermos for her. Ninja bid her good luck and she placed the thermos in her car.

"So, what are we doing now?" Spencer asked as she entered Emily's room.

"You'll see soon enough." Emily said, smiling. She loved that Spencer couldn't wait for her surprise, like a little girl impatiently waiting to open her gifts on her birthday. Spencer wasn't used to not having control of things, and wasn't sure as to how the night was gonna go. She was desperately hoping that she does nothing to ruin the night, as the day had been great.

Emily led her to the car, joking about how she should be blindfolded through out the ride so she wouldn't be able to guess where they were going and what they were doing but couldn't risk being in trouble with the police, especially the military police who were stationed in more places than the regular state police.

Spencer promised to close her eyes as they got closer, as long as Emily let her know, and did not peek at all until Emily told her it was okay to open her eyes. She felt the car stopping, and although the engine was still running, through the music she could hear her heart beating fast as she felt Emily's warm breath against her cheek as Emily leaned to check if she did indeed closed her eyes. She wanted so badly to close the gap between her lips and Emily's in a kiss, but instead she took a deep breath and leaned back against the car seat and closed her eyes tighter.

"I'll be back," Emily said, and Spencer took another deep breath as Emily opened and shut doors of the car. Soon after, Spencer heard the passenger door opening, "I hope you like this."

"I'm sure I will," Spencer replied; Emily reached for her to help her get out of the car. Emily placed her right hand on her waist and the other hand over her eyes and guided her to their destination.

When Emily removed her hand from Spencer's eyes, she had left her other hand on her waist and whispered, "You can open your eyes now."

Spencer opened her eyes to a body of water separating them from a small city she couldn't tell which, with an orange to dark sky hovering above them as the sun was setting. In front of her was a blanket laid out on a flat area on a giant rock, pinned by a folded blanket next to a sleeping bag, a picnic basket and a giant thermos. Above a hill was a small, old lighthouse.

"Wow," She exclaimed softly, "It's beautiful here." Emily held her hand and led her toward the blanket.

"Yeah, I usually come here when I just wanna get away," Emily said, climbing up on the rock and sitting on the blanket, "and to think." She extended her hand toward Spencer.

"About what?" Spencer took Emily's hand and climbed up. She sat next to Emily, and looked ahead.

"Anything and everything," Emily said, looking at Spencer whose mouth was slightly opened at the amazement of the view. "Rosewood, you and Hanna, Aria, and Toby. And how I wish I could help you more with dealing with A. Most of the time I sit here and contemplate on what I would do if we ever catch who A is."

"Like what?"

"Oh, something around kicking his or her ass." Emily said, surprising Spencer with her thoughts of mild violent actions. "Most of the plans were involving zombies."

"Zombies?" Spencer turned to look at her, "How are you going to execute that? Are you growing them in your backyard or something?"

"Maybe.." Emily smiled, "They are the next military bio-weapons, you know?"

"Is that true?" Spencer looked a bit intrigued. "Is that what they're working on here at the base?"

"Yeah, have you seen the kids I go to school with?" Emily said, "A bit different from Rosewood kids, but still all-together the same."

"Oh, I don't know about that, they seem more robotic than zombiefied." Spencer said, "Besides, zombies are more similar to babies."

"Babies?" Emily looked at her, her eyebrow arched upward.

"Yeah, you know-the unstable, clumsy stagger, the inability to tell the difference from right and wrong, the smell, the constant oral excretion, and the most important one of all.." Spencer reached for Emily's hand, "the need to feed." As she said this, she made the gesture of pretending to eat Emily's arm while making moaning sounds and screaming unintelligible mumblings. Emily pulled her arm playfully, laughing.

"There's pizza in the basket if you were hungry!" Emily said, "I bet it tastes better than my arm."

"Not to zombies, it doesn't." Spencer said, placing her hand on Emily's knee. "Your arm would be like filet mignon."

Emily placed her hand on top of Spencer's, who flinched a little at her touch but she didn't move away. "You know, for someone who doesn't scare easily, you can get pretty jumpy."

"You know, for someone who gets scared easily, you watch too much scary movies."

"Well, I need to know what to prepare for," Emily said slowly, "And I know that if I ever get too scared, I can just run to you," she had placed her fingers in between the spaces of Spencer's fingers and held on to her hand. "I know you'll always be there."

Spencer smiled and looked ahead, as the sun is almost replaced by the dark sky and the only lights they have were the lights from the city across the water.

"I know how you've always wanted to watch the stars," Emily said, "so tonight just happened to be one of the nights of the Perseid meteor showers is passing through."

"Wow, you've done your research? I'm impressed!" Spencer said, turning to face Emily and smiling at her.

"Hey!" Emily said, feigning being offended. "I actually really love studying stars. And not just the celebrity kinds."

"Good, then you can tell me all about it." Spencer wanted to spend the rest of the night just listening to Emily. Emily talked about the meteor showers of that year and what they were expecting to see that night. As they waited, they talked about the constellations; even though Emily didn't want to, she had to take her hand away from Spencer's and pointed at the sky to show Spencer the stars.

"This is the best place to watch the stars," Emily said.

"Because there's not very many lights around and you can see the stars clearly?"

"Because you're here with me." Emily whispered.

"Now, how many girls have heard you say that?"

"Well, one.." Emily said, looking at the lighthouse to see if the caretaker had turned it on yet, but hasn't. "Oh, and now you." She laughed.

"So, I'm not a girl?"

"You're Spencer Hastings." Emily said.

"I'm my own gender now?" Spencer asked.

"You're better than a girl." She looked at her in the eyes, "you're my best friend."

"Thanks for clarifying that."

Emily was tracing the lines on Spencer's hands with her finger, "There's a special hot chocolate in that thermos for you if you're getting cold, compliments of Ninja."

"Thank you," Spencer said, resting her head on Emily's shoulder. "Like you want me to drink any more caffeine."

"Well, we are going to pull an all-nighter here..

"Meteor showers don't last that long," Spencer said. "We may miss it."

"Or we can find some other way to use up your energy." Emily said.

"Are you cold?" Spencer grabbed the blanket and threw it on both of them; as they were by the water, the breeze was slightly colder then.

Emily laid down, and look directly at the sky, she whispered. "Stars are better from this angle."

"Yeah?" Spencer laid down and Emily moved closer and held onto Spencer, but it wasn't enough to keep their heat together. She could feel Spencer's shivering body next to her.

"I wasn't kidding when I said there's pizza in the basket if you're hungry, Spence." Emily whispered, "And also peanut butter and jelly sandwiches." Spencer didn't say anything, "I didn't know what you wanted to eat for dinner and I couldn't bring anything that required heating. Although a bonfire would have been good right now."

"I am fine." Spencer said, closing her eyes and held onto Emily's hand as tightly as she could, hoping that it doesn't disappear when she opened her eyes again.

It had been the most romantic day with her best friend, but she was still apprehensive about confronting Emily about her feelings. She couldn't understand it, she had always gotten what she wanted, because she would go after it and take it when the chance presented itself. But now, as she lay next to Emily, holding her close and their hands intertwined- she could barely say more than a few words.

"There's more blankets in the car," Emily whispered, "I can go and get them."

"No, it's okay, I'll get them." Spencer reluctantly let go of Emily and got up. When she got to Emily's car, she went straight toward the trunk and opened it. She opened it and looked for the blanket, which wasn't that hard to find as Emily had organized her trunk. As she closed the trunk to get back to Emily, she had noticed the words written on the back window: I SEE YOU.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

Emily sat up as she waited for Spencer to come back. She had cleaned the car before Spencer got to her house, and she was sure that the blanket was not that hard to find- so she wondered why Spencer took a while to come back with it. She grabbed a portable speaker from the basket and hooked up her iPod to it. Scrolling through the playlists, she found the one playlist that she wanted.

She turned around to see Spencer looking around her with every step, as if she thought someone was watching them, without the blanket.

"You okay?" Emily said, watching her and hiding the speaker under the blanket. Spencer looked around again, over her shoulders and around. "Spence?"

"Yeah," She looked around her again before looking at Emily and focusing her attention on her.

She couldn't help but loved the way Spencer looked panicked. And she knew that it may be wrong to like that, but there was something adorable in the way her nose wrinkled when there was something frustrating her, and how her voice became high-pitched and cracked whenever she spoke, and Emily already feels her knees melting with Spencer's raspy voice.

Emily shook her head and looked at Spencer, who was empty-handed when she came back. "Forget something?" Spencer had placed the blanket on top of the car as she investigated the writing on the window, and had forgotten it in her panic. "It's alright, we'll just have to find a different way to get warm," Emily said.

"What are you talking about?" Spencer said, looking at her, trying her hardest not to turn around or away from Emily.

"Dancing, duh." Emily pressed play on her iPod before standing up and holding her hand to Spencer. "I happen to know that you love it."

"Do not!" Spencer tried to keep a straight face but couldn't help but feel guilty as she recognized the song that was playing. It was Spice Girls' _Who Do You Think You Are_.

"Do, too! You always gave this big spiel about how we loved to dance to Britney Spears' music, and how much you hated it." Emily said, "Then you go home and dance to Spice Girls!"

"How do you know about that?"

"I was leaving Ali's house one day and you were playing hookey, and I happen to look up your window and saw you."

"Peeping on me?" Spencer said, smiling.

"It's hard to look away when you're busting out into these kinds of dance moves." Emily started dancing in the fashion that imitated the way Spencer used to dance while she was in her room, wearing only her underwear and a plain, loose t-shirt while her hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Emily wanted to admit that she had seen this many times, and at such a young age she couldn't understand the admiration she had for Spencer that she often had to hide because of Alison. She bit her lip before smiling as she continued to dance a move that is comparable to a modernized running man and "Walk like an Egyptian" hybrid.

"I do not remember that at all!" Spencer said, watching the girl in front of her.

"Oh, with a memory like yours? Don't even try to deny it." Emily turned the music up louder, and with "_Wannabe_" playing she reached for Spencer's hand and tried to initiate the dance. "Come on!"

Spencer swayed slowly as Emily had insisted, moving her feet gradually in steps from left to right; she smiled, slightly embarrassed that Emily had seen her "dancing" and still remembered it even though they were probably twelve years old when she had last danced that way.

"This is embarrassing." Spencer muttered softly.

"To whom? No one's watching us!" Emily replied.

"But you can see me.."

"Spencer, trust me, I find your dancing the most adorable thing next to Nemo saying 'Anemennemmone,'" Emily struggled to imitate Nemo, which was probably just as adorable in Spencer's eyes. They managed to dance to a few songs, including _Say You'll Be There_that Spencer couldn't help lip-syncing to; they laughed loudly together before Spencer looked up as she felt rain drops falling slowly. They had enough time to put away a few of their things before getting completely soaked.

"Wait," Emily stopped Spencer as she put the basket into the trunk of her car, the muffled sound of Spice Girls' music playing softly.

"We're going to get wet," Spencer said, watching as the rain poured heavier on them.

"We're already wet!" Emily gasped through the water dripping over their faces, "but I've always wanted to dance in the rain, and since we were already dancing, why not just do it now!"

"Okay," Spencer said, "what music? More Spice Girls?"

"No, your singing made it rain." Emily said, "I'll put it on shuffle." She held the iPod in her wet palm, and tried to get a different playlist to play but managed to hit "All Songs," and it started to play _Mmmbop_by Hanson, a song that Spencer knew too well. Upon recognition, and she tried to be as swift as she could, Emily tried to skip the song.

"Whoa, no, bring that song back," Spencer said, trying to grab iPod from Emily. "I knew you still listen to Hanson."

"It must have transferred from my old playlist when I added your Spice Girls music to my iPod."

"Yeah, right. They wouldn't even be in the same playlist!"

"They were from the age when dinosaurs roamed the earth, circa 1997." Emily said, still hiding the iPod away from Spencer who persistently tried to reach for it.

"But the Spice Girls were legendary!" Spencer said, "Hanson was a one-hit wonder!"

"I only liked them because I thought Taylor was a girl." As they continued to banter about the old music they used to listen to, Spencer attempted to stealthily grab the iPod from Emily, who pressed the next button that played NSYNC's song, _Bye Bye Bye. _Emily grabbed Spencer by the hand and dragged her towards more space. And as the song got to the chorus, they smiled at each other as they knew the dance moves for the song. Spencer said something that was muffled by the music and the rain that Emily had to stop and move closer to her.

"Are you a Gremlin, Spence? Is that why you don't want to get wet? Because I don't really mind you multiplying."

"They're called Mogwais, Em," Spencer whispered to Emily, "And no, it's because I'm going to melt."

"Then I will melt with you," Emily said, wrapping her arms around Spencer's waist. Spencer rested her forehead on Emily's shoulder, a bit of a struggle for her because she was taller but she didn't mind it at all being that close to Emily although it scared her a bit. Emily must have sensed it because she quickly said, "We should go home before we get sick" to which Spencer could only mutter "mm."

"The seats are going to get wet," Spencer said.

"So, now you don't wanna go home?" Emily smiled and Spencer gave her a stern look, "We'll use the blankets."

Spencer reluctantly straightened herself as Emily paused the music and grabbed the blanket. She unfolded one and wrapped it around Spencer, covering her entire body except for her face. She then closed the trunk as she walked around to the driver side.

* * *

><p>Emily tossed a towel to Spencer, who started to dry her arms and her head with it as soon as she got it, as she looked through her closet for something to wear. "Should we shower first?" Emily asked as she continued to dig through her closet.<p>

"If you don't mind sleeping while smelling like rain," Spencer said slowly, "I just wanna lay down."

"Only if we get to cuddle." Emily whispered as she turn to Spencer, tossing her a gray shirt and shorts, then turning away as she took off the wet clothes from herself, looking back occasionally at Spencer changing. Spencer threw herself on the bed when she finished changing, trying hard not to look at Emily who was already fully dressed and was walking toward the bed.

"As long as I'm the big spoon," Spencer said as Emily joined her in bed, her arm was outstretched as she anticipated the girl to lay next to her. She had been wondering if it was normal to cuddle with your best friend and it not be some prologue to a porno movie or something; but being in Emily's arm or holding Emily in her arms felt right. And when Emily didn't move closer, Spencer pulled herself close and Emily rested her head on her chest.

"Thank you for everything today," Spencer whispered slowly, pulling Emily closer, "It was perfect."

"Not really, I didn't anticipate the rain."

"It was my favorite bit." Spencer said, "Spontaneous but loved every minute of it."

"Except for the Hansons," Emily whispered, moving closer and trying to get more comfortable.

"Yeah, already forgot about that." Spencer chuckled, "I still can't believe you used to listen to them and now you listen to the Smiths and the Cure."

"I guess I've changed."

"A little, but you're still the cute little Emmy that I know, who jumps into the ocean to save a cat even when she's allergic, and gets excited over Pizza Rolls."

"Because they're so good," Emily said, "You just haven't given them the chance."

"It's not exactly on the Hastings' household menu."

"Want me to make you some? It'll only take a few minutes." Emily whispered but not making any motion to get out of bed.

"No, it's fine. I'm not that hungry." Spencer let out a small yawn. "Thank you again for today. I'll have to plan out something more spectacular for next time I'm with you."

"You don't have to, Spence," Emily said, closing her eyes, "I'm fine with just having you here." All Emily could hear are the loud thumps of Spencer's heartbeat and her attempt to stifle another yawn, while conscious that her own heart was beating fast and loud. She opened her eyes, and before Emily could even tell Spencer that they should go to bed, Spencer was already asleep. "Spence?" Emily whispered, and when she didn't hear any response, she added, "I love you."

As soon as she closed her eyes again and pulled herself closer to Spencer, a chill overcame her body as she heard her phone vibrating from a text. She hesitated a minute whether to read it, and when she did, she had almost threw her phone away as it read: _Be careful what you wish for, Em, remember what happened to all the girls you say "I Love You" to? -A_


End file.
